France elections: Winning leftist alliance to name PM later this week

Contrary to most opinion polls that predicted a sweep by Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN) party, the second round of the French parliamentary elections have served a major surprise. The left-wing alliance has won the most seats, beating both the far right and President Emmanuel Macron's centrist coalition.

According to reports,the leftwing New Popular Front won 182 seats, followed by Macron's Together alliance with 163 seats while Le Pen finished with 143 seats in the bag. Although the left-wing alliance emerged as the biggest winner, the number of seats were still more than 100 short of an absolute majority which stands at 289 in the 577-seat National Assembly.

The French left will choose a candidate for prime minister from within their coalition within the week,Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure said.

Meanwhile, RN leader Jordan Bardella, who was touted to be the youngest prime minister in the country, blamed "unnatural political alliances" for stopping their rise to power.

Notably, after the disappointing first round of elections,France’s left wing and centre banded together to form a coalition called the Republican Front to try and block RN from amassing an absolute majority. They did so by withdrawing 200 of their candidates where there was a possibility of three-way races.

The left-wing alliance is led by radical leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon whoseFrance Unbowed (LFI) is regarded as far-left by political commentators and rivals. LFI emerged as the single largest party by winning 94 seats in the assembly.

After the win, Mélenchon was quick to remind Macron to tender his resignation and accept the defeat.

"The president's defeat is clear; the president must accept his defeat, the prime minister must go," saidMélenchon.

"The president has the power and the duty to call us, the New Popular Front to govern. We are ready," he added.

PM to hand resignation

While Macron is yet to take a call, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who was appointed by the president only seven months ago, said he would hand in his resignation on Monday morning.

"Tomorrow morning I will hand in my resignation," he said. "A new era starts tonight."

Attal's fate now lies in the president's hands as a stable government is needed with only three weeks to go before the start of the Paris Olympics. The popular PM said he was ready to remain in the post "for as long as duty demands".

As for Macron, the outcome of the legislative elections, calledthree years ahead of schedule in a bid to reshape the political landscape by him, leaves France without any clear path to forming a new government. The president now has the task to steer France through its most severe political uncertainty in decades which appears to have been engineered by his 'snap' decision.

(With inputs from agencies)