The left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) coalition won 27.99% of the vote, making it the second largest political force, ahead of the outgoing majority of President Emmanuel Macron, who is the big loser of the elections with 20.04%.

The Republicans, the classic right-wing party, which has been shattered by its leader Éric Ciotti's pact with the RN, got 6.57% on its own and 10.23% if the votes of other right-wing candidates are included.

This first round, in which turnout was particularly high at 66.71%, has already elected 37 deputies for the RN, 32 for the NFP, two for the Macronist bloc and three for the LR and its allies.

In the second round, to be held next Sunday, the RN and its partners will contest 485 of the 577 constituencies, and their candidates came first in 297 of them in the first round. This gives some idea of the potential of the far right, which all opinion polls predict will be by far the largest political group in the next National Assembly.

The question is whether it will do so with an absolute majority, i.e. at least 289 seats, which is the condition set by Le Pen and her candidate for prime minister, Jordan Bardella, to form a government.

One of the three main pollsters has included this hypothesis of an absolute majority in its seat projections for next Sunday. The left-wing coalition has managed to qualify its candidates for the second round in 446 constituencies, although it is in first place in only 157 of them.

Its leaders have announced that they will systematically withdraw candidates who came third and have to run against an NR candidate with a chance of winning. In theory, the Macronist bloc will be able to contest 319 constituencies in the second round, but it came first in only 69 of them.

Since the first results were announced last night, the slogans within this camp have been of variable geometry, with the possibility that their candidates in difficult positions will resign in order to prevent the RN from winning some seats. All this will have to be sorted out by Tuesday at 18:00, when the deadline for submitting candidacies for the second round expires.

Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally, thanked the voters and called for an absolute majority in the second round. "We need an absolute majority. Such a high turnout gives the vote particular strength," Le Pen stressed. She called for "the recovery of France". 

"I ask you to join the coalition of liberty, security and fraternity, to mobilise so that the people win," she said to the applause of her supporters. "For the good of all, my dear compatriots, on 30 June 2024, hope will be reborn in the country, on 7 July, mobilise so that the people win! Long live the Republic! Long live France!" he repeated.

The president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella, also spoke, promising to be "a prime minister of coexistence, who respects the Constitution and the role of the President of the Republic", but "uncompromising".

He said he would be "the prime minister of all the French" after a vote in which "the French have assumed their responsibilities". With the victory of the National Rally, "the French have given the country unprecedented hope", but he called on them to make "one last effort. The choice is clear and France has two options: the alliance of the worst, which would lead to ruin, or the National Rally, which will restore security and defend jobs," he argued.

The second round of the elections will be "one of the most decisive in the history of the Fifth Republic", he warned. Bardella called on people to vote "against those who want to despise our values". "Victory is possible and change is within our grasp. Let us mobilise for change," he urged.

On the other hand, there were calls from the centre and the left for unity and the strategic withdrawal of third-placed candidates as long as there was a chance of the National Grouping candidate winning. Macron was the first to call for unity. "Faced with the National Rally, the time has come for a great unity, clearly democratic and republican for the second round," he said in an official statement.

"The high turnout in the first round (...) shows the importance of this vote for all our compatriots and the desire to clarify the political situation. Your democratic choice obliges us," he said. French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal echoed Macron's message that it was now a question of "preventing the RN from having an absolute majority with its disastrous project".

Second place went to the New Popular Front led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon's France Insoumise and Olivier Faure's Socialist Party. Both have announced that they will withdraw their candidacies in the second round in constituencies where there is a risk of a far-right victory.

"Our instructions are simple: not a single seat for the National Rally," Mélenchon told his supporters. In any case, Mélenchon stressed that these results represent "a hard and undeniable defeat" for French President Emmanuel Macron.

"President Macron thought he was once again locking universal suffrage into a stifling choice that no one believes in anymore: either him or the AN," he said. "The massive turnout unravelled the trap set for the country. This vote has dealt the president a heavy and undeniable defeat," he stressed.

For his part, Faure assured that "we will withdraw our candidates if the National Rally is in danger of winning. This is a historic result that obliges us. For the first time, the extreme right can govern", he warned in statements to TF1. The leader of the centrist Democratic Movement (MoDem), François Bayrou, also called for unity between the "democratic and republican candidates".

The conservative Republican Party (LR), which collapsed because of the alliance with the RN of its president Éric Ciotti - who has effectively abandoned it - does not want to choose between the two main blocs, the extreme right and the extreme left.

In a communiqué, the RN barons who broke with Ciotti called for a vote for their own candidates if they were able to stand in the second round, and in constituencies where this was not possible, they renounced the use of slogans, after harshly criticising both the LFI and the RN.