France was facing a hung parliament after no party secured an absolute majority in legislative elections on Sunday, as a surprising surge from a new left-wing coalition helped hold back the far-right National Rally’s push to power.
The results will put the country on a path for months of potential political gridlock at a time when many in France are angry over issues like inflation and immigration.
With all but three of the 577 National Assembly seats left to be called, numbers compiled by The New York Times using data from the Interior Ministry confirm earlier projections showing that no single party or bloc will win a majority.
The left-wing New Popular Front, which came together just last month with the goal of keeping the National Rally from power, won 177 seats, compared with 148 for President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist bloc, known as Ensemble. The National Rally trailed with 142.
The results came as a shock to many in France, where the National Rally had emerged as the top performer in the first round of voting last week.
The New Popular Front appeared to have capitalized on its recent momentum and fears that the far-right party was a threat to French democratic values and institutions. Its supporters took to the streets of Paris on Sunday night to celebrate, although some in France were fearful of what the far left would bring: The largest party in the alliance, France Unbowed, is known for its incendiary far-left politics.
Here’s what else to know:
- High turnout: Voter participation at 5 p.m. local time was the highest in over two decades, at nearly 60 percent, the Interior Ministry said. That was much higher than during the previous legislative elections in 2022, when the participation rate at the same time was about 38 percent.
- Far right defiant: Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally, acknowledged that his party had fallen short of expectations but noted that it had captured its highest ever number of seats in the National Assembly. “Unfortunately,” Mr. Bardella told supporters in Paris, “dangerous electoral deals” made by Mr. Macron’s allies and the left had “deprived” the country of a far-right government.
- Macron weakened: Mr. Macron, who has three more years in office, called the elections last month in a risky gamble. His office said on Sunday that the French president was “taking note of the results of the legislative elections as they come in.” “The President will ensure that the sovereign choice of the French people is respected,” it said in a statement.
- Security concerns: The French authorities had deployed about 30,000 security forces around the country amid fears of potential unrest. In the cities of Rennes and Nantes, protesters threw fireworks and bottles toward riot police officers, who responded by firing tear gas, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported, adding that about 30 people had been arrested in Rennes. At Place de la République in Paris, where thousands of people had gathered, police officers also used tear gas and some protesters threw objects at them.
