French Prime Minister to resign as leftists capture parliamentary seats in snap elections

A far-left political coalition swiftly assembled ahead of France’s snap elections is projected to win a plurality of parliamentary seats and the country’s prime minister has declared his goal to push the country into uncharted territory and potential turmoil. .

As the election results came in, French Prime Minister Gabriel Atal announced he would tender his retirement on Monday.

President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist coalition was projected to take the maximum number of seats in second place, while it was projected to come in third.

Macron had called snap elections only four weeks earlier, after the right-wing National Rally (RN) scored a landslide in EU parliamentary elections in June. Polls ahead of the primary round of voting indicate that the RN will dominate. On the other hand, more recent polling before the runoff shows that returns have diminished and the RN will fall below a cloudless majority.

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The first round took place on 30 June and only 76 of the 577 constituencies of the French National Assembly identified their representatives. Applicants who did not receive an absolute majority in the first round of voting went straight to a second round of runoffs, which took place on Sunday.

Going into the election, France was able to elect the RN as the largest party in the government, even though it was possible that the dissenting party could emerge with an overwhelming majority in a tight contest.

As results began to come in, projections shifted to the left, reflecting the rarity of a majority for any single coalition, which threatened to plunge France into economic and political turmoil.

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Overall results of the election are not expected until Sunday or early Monday.

Macron took a big gamble when he called snap elections, and projections suggest the gamble may not have paid off for the unpopular president and his coalition, who lost control of parliament.

The results fell well short of the party’s expectations, due to the far-right RN now holding a much larger number of seats in Parliament.

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Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a leftist leader, called on Macron to ask the leftist Unemployed Consumer Front coalition to approach a central authority, given the projections that put it on top.

Macron’s office said the president would “wait for the new National Assembly to organize itself” before making any decisions.

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A hung parliament without a single bloc achieving the 289 seats needed for an absolute majority in the National Assembly, the more difficult of France’s two legislative chambers, could be uncharted territory for modern France.

France does not have a tradition of MPs from rival political camps coming together to win a majority.

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If the projections are proven through authentic calculations, it will raise deeper doubts about the pillar of the EU and its second-largest economy, without clarity on how France will be governed with Macron as prime minister. Who can partner with?

Peter Aitken of Fox Information Virtual and The Associated Press contributed to this file.