EXIT polls suggest disaster for Macron and a surprise defeat for the Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) as France looks set for a hung parliament.
The current polls indicate that the left-wing coalition is set to take the top spot marking a big dent in the expectations of the far right.
Several other polls, including France’s biggest private channel TF1, predict Marine Le Pen’s party may have come second.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the radical left France Unbowed party, the largest in the left-wing coalition New Popular Front (NFP), has addressed his supporters following the exit poll results.
He said: “The far right is far from a majority tonight… The election result is the outcome of a magnificent mobilisation effort.
“The president has to bow and admit this is a defeat… the prime minister needs to leave.”
Incumbent president Emmanuel Macron‘s party and their allies were left dragging behind in the polls as Marine Le Pen’s National Rally scooped the first round of legislative elections on Sunday.
Her party reached 33 per cent of the vote, while the left-wing New Popular Front came in second with 28 per cent.
Macron’s centrist bloc trailed behind with just 20 per cent, the interior ministry said.
France’s incumbent Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said the far right sits at the “gates of power”.
Macron took a gamble in calling the snap election last month – which appears to have backfired.
An extra 30,000 police officers have been deployed across the country with around 5,000 of them stationed in Paris
It comes after hundreds of left-wing protesters flooded the streets and clashed with cops in Paris as they set off fireworks and flares.
Dozens of protesters also scaled the Place de la Republique as police and firefighters attempted to quell tensions.
Dramatic pictures show fires raging and shop windows smashed.
Cops unleashed tear gas while firefighters tried to put out blazes.
France has not been under far-right leadership since World War Two when Philippe Pétain and his prime minister Pierre Laval headed the Vichy regime that collaborated with the Nazis.
At least 289 are needed for an absolute majority in the National Assembly, France’s lower house of parliament.
