French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has said he will resign as exit polls showed the Left-wing New Popular Front taking biggest share of the seats in the French National Assembly.
Attal is part of the Ensemble bloc, which is projected to have come in second place.
With no party expected to take a majority, negotiations will now begin on forming the next government.
Shock exit polls are projecting that Marine Le Pen’s party will come third, major disappointment after leading in first round of voting.
President Emmanuel Macron will wait for the full picture to emerge and for the new National Assembly “to organise itself” before making any decisions on the next government, the French Presidency said in a statement on Sunday.
“The president, as guarantor of our institutions, will respect the choice of the French people,” it added.
Macron will not give a speech tonight. Full results should be known by tomorrow morning but the National Assembly is not scheduled to gather in full session until July 18th.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Sunday the projected defeat of France’s hard-Right in parliamentary elections would lead to “disappointment” in Russia and “relief” in Ukraine.
“In Paris enthusiasm, in Moscow disappointment, in Kyiv relief. Enough to be happy in Warsaw,” former EU chief Tusk wrote on social media platform X.
Tusk earlier this month had warned of a “very dangerous” turn for France and Europe after the hard-Right won the first round of the elections.
Tusk had also alleged “Russian influence” in “many parties of the radical right in Europe”.
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