PARIS —
A coalition on the left that came together unexpectedly ahead of France’s snap election won the most parliamentary seats in the vote, according to polling projections Sunday. The surprise projections put President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance in second and the far right in third.
The lack of majority for any single alliance threatened to plunge France into political and economic turmoil. Final results are not expected until late Sunday or early Monday in the highly volatile snap election, which was called just four weeks ago in a huge gamble for Macron.
It does not appear to have paid off for the deeply unpopular president, whose alliance has lost control of parliament, according to the projections. Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally greatly increased the number of seats it holds, meanwhile, but fell far short of expectations.
Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon urged Macron to invite the leftist New Popular Front coalition to form a government, given projections that put it in the lead. The alliance, he said, “is ready to govern.”
In Paris’ Stalingrad square, supporters on the left cheered and applauded as projections showing the alliance ahead flashed up on a giant screen. Cries of joy also rang out in the Place de la Republique in eastern Paris, with people spontaneously hugging strangers in the plaza and several minutes of nonstop applause after the projections landed.
The projections, if confirmed by official counts, will spell intense uncertainty for a pillar of the European Union and its second-largest economy, with no clarity about who might partner with Macron as prime minister in governing France. The results will influence the war in Ukraine, global diplomacy and Europe’s economic stability.
Macron’s office said the president would “wait for the new National Assembly to organize itself” before making any decisions. The polling projections are based on the actual vote count in select constituencies.
In a somber speech after the vote, Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally, denounced the political maneuvering that led the party to fall far short of expectations and blamed Macron for “pushing France into uncertainty and instability.”
An unprecedented number of candidates who qualified for the runoff stepped aside to allow an opponent to go head-to-head with the National Rally candidate, increasing the chances of defeating them.
“Tonight, by deliberately taking the responsibility to paralyze our institutions, Emmanuel Macron … is consequently depriving the French people of any responses to their daily problems for many months to come,” Bardella said.
A hung parliament with no single bloc coming close to getting the 289 seats needed for an absolute majority in the National Assembly, the more powerful of France’s two legislative chambers, would be unknown territory for modern France.
Unlike other countries in Europe that are more accustomed to coalition governments, France doesn’t have a tradition of lawmakers from rival political camps coming together to form a working majority.
Macron stunned France, and many in his own government, by dissolving parliament after the far right surged in French voting for the European elections.
Macron argued that sending voters back to the ballot boxes would provide France with “clarification.” But rather than rally behind him, millions of voters on both the left and right of France’s increasingly polarized political landscape seized on his surprise decision as an opportunity to vent their anger.
Leicester, Hinnant and Corbet write for the Associated Press. AP journalists Barbara Surk in Nice, France, and Helena Alves and Alex Turnbull in Paris contributed to this report.