French election 2024 live: NFP wins most seats, Macron bloc second, Le Pen third
Cheers erupted on the streets of Paris on Sunday night as projected results suggested the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) party would defeat the far-right National Rally (RN) party in France’s snap parliamentary elections.
Later, a large crowd gathered at the capital’s Place de la République to celebrate the left-wing alliance winning the most seats in parliament, while chanting: “Young people, fuck the National Front”, a popular left-wing slogan.
The NFP is a group of several parties, from the far-left France Insoumise to the more moderate Socialists and Ecologists.
The alliance won 182 seats in the National Assembly, making it the largest group but short of the 289 needed for an absolute majority, according to the French Interior Ministry.
Speaking to a crowd of his ecstatic supporters near Stalingrad Square, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the firebrand leader of France Insoumise, said the results were an “enormous relief for the overwhelming majority of people in our country”.
“Our people have clearly rejected the worst-case scenario,” Mélenchon said. “A magnificent wave of civic mobilization has taken hold!”
On Sunday night, police cleared the Place de la République, firing tear gas into the crowd, most of whom were young people.
But protesters remained upbeat, with photos showing people across the city cheering and celebrating.
The mood was darker for supporters of the far-right RN party.
In Paris’ Bois de Vincennes park, the lively atmosphere at an RN campaign event plummeted an hour before polls closed when it became clear the far-right bloc would come third in the vote.
After the projection was announced, Jordan Bardella, the 28-year-old leader of the RN, said France had been thrown into “uncertainty and instability”.
Despite leading after the first round of voting, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) party and its allies won 143 seats.
With no party close to securing a majority, parliament will likely be paralyzed, divided between three blocs.
The RN’s strong performance in the first round raised fears that France could be about to elect its first far-right government since the collaborationist Vichy regime in World War II.
But Sunday’s results were a huge surprise and show the overwhelming desire of French voters to stop the far right from coming to power — even at the cost of a hung parliament.
President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Ensemble alliance, which fell to a dismal third place in the first round of voting last Sunday, staged a strong comeback to win 163 seats.
Macron protégé Gabriel Attal announced he would resign as prime minister on Monday morning. He appeared to criticize Macron’s decision to call the early vote, saying he “did not choose” for the French parliament to be dissolved.
After parliamentary elections, the French president appoints a prime minister from the party that won the most seats. Typically, this means a candidate from the president’s own party. However, Sunday’s results mean Macron faces the prospect of having to appoint a figure from the left-wing coalition, in a rare arrangement known as “cohabitation”.
Speaking to supporters near Stalingrad Square, Mélenchon said Macron “has a duty to call on the New Popular Front to govern”.
