Nobody expected this. High drama, for sure, but this was a shock.
When the graphics flashed up on all the big French channels, it was not the far right of Marine Le Pen and her young prime minister-in-waiting Jordan Bardella who were on course for victory.
It was the left who had clinched it, and Emmanuel Macron's centrists - the Ensemble alliance - had staged an unexpected comeback, pushing the far-right National Rally (RN) into third.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the veteran left-wing firebrand seen by his critics as an extremist (but not a far left extremist), wasted no time in proclaiming victory.
"The president must call on the New Popular Front to govern," he told supporters in Stalingrad square, insisting Mr Macron had to recognise that he and his coalition had lost.
(His alliance, drawn up in a hurry for President Macron's surprise election, includes his own radical France Unbowed, along with Greens, Socialists and Communists and even Trotskyists…but nothing “far” off from the something or another like those dirty “far-right” non-Parisians)
The National Rally Party is over on the “far” right above next to the ‘Others’.
Marine Le Pen put a brave face on it. "Two years ago we had just seven MPs. Tonight RN is the first party in France in terms of MP numbers."
In the last parliament they had 88 MPs and now more than 140, so she was right. And no other party has more than 100 MPs, because the Macronists and the Popular Front are both coalitions. Oh well, as long as they all play well together.
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When the graphics flashed up on all the big French channels, it was not the far right of Marine Le Pen and her young prime minister-in-waiting Jordan Bardella who were on course for victory.
It was the left who had clinched it, and Emmanuel Macron's centrists - the Ensemble alliance - had staged an unexpected comeback, pushing the far-right National Rally (RN) into third.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the veteran left-wing firebrand seen by his critics as an extremist (but not a far left extremist), wasted no time in proclaiming victory.
"The president must call on the New Popular Front to govern," he told supporters in Stalingrad square, insisting Mr Macron had to recognise that he and his coalition had lost.
(His alliance, drawn up in a hurry for President Macron's surprise election, includes his own radical France Unbowed, along with Greens, Socialists and Communists and even Trotskyists…but nothing “far” off from the something or another like those dirty “far-right” non-Parisians)
The National Rally Party is over on the “far” right above next to the ‘Others’.
Marine Le Pen put a brave face on it. "Two years ago we had just seven MPs. Tonight RN is the first party in France in terms of MP numbers."
In the last parliament they had 88 MPs and now more than 140, so she was right. And no other party has more than 100 MPs, because the Macronists and the Popular Front are both coalitions. Oh well, as long as they all play well together.
What just happened in France's shock election? — BBC News
Nobody expected the left to win, let alone for the far right to come in third place.
