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French Left wins most seats in 2nd round of parliamentary elections


The leftist parties is set for a shock win of the second round of the French snap legislative elections, according to initial estimates.

The leftist New Popular Front is projected to win between 175 and 205 seats, ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Together coalition (between 150 and 175) and the far-right National Rally coalition (between 115 and 150), showed the estimates of the BFM TV.

These results mean France will have a hung parliament, with three major blocs but no clear majority.

Even before the announcement of the final results, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal admitted his centrist coalition had lost the absolute majority the parliament and announced that would submit his resignation to President Macron on Monday, July 8.

“The political party that I represented in this campaign … does not have a majority, so I will submit my resignation to the President of the Republic tomorrow morning,” Attal told reporters.

In the first round last Sunday, the far-right National Rally coalition came f
irst with 34 percent of the votes. The leftist New Popular Front came second with 28.5 percent of the votes. Macron’s centrist Together came third with 20.3 percent of the votes.

In a surprise move, President Macron dissolved the National Assembly and called for snap legislative elections on June 9 after the far-right National Rally significantly outperformed his centrist alliance in the European elections.

Source: Kuwait News Agency