France National Assembly polls: Macron's alliance loses majority

French President Emmanuel Macron's centrist alliance has lost its parliamentary majority, on the back of record results for the far left in second place and the far right in third. Provisional results showed that Macron's Ensemble (Together) alliance won 245 of the 577 seats in the National Assembly, the Ministry of the Interior announced early on Monday morning after vote counting ended. An absolute majority would require 289 seats. Socialist veteran Jean-Luc Melenchon's new leftists NUPES coalition secured 131 seats, becoming the main opposition force. Melenchon hailed the result as "above all an electoral failure" for the president.

The election results will likely severely complicate the newly re-elected president's second-term agenda. Macron's ability to pursue further economic reforms would hinge on his ability to rally moderates outside of his alliance behind his legislative agenda. Le Pen's National Rally party, which had just eight seats in the outgoing parliament, saw its biggest parliamentary success in decades, winning 89 seats and becoming the third power in the legislature, according to the preliminary results.  The conservative Les Republicains got 61 seats, potentially making them kingmakers. Macron's political allies cast Melenchon as a "sinister agitator" who would wreck the country.