France’s leftist coalition leads election, no absolute majority projected

The news: France’s leftist coalition unexpectedly won the most seats in the snap parliamentary elections, early projections revealed on Sunday, setting Europe’s second-largest economy on track for a hung parliament.

The numbers: President Emmanuel Macron's centrist alliance is projected to come a narrow second, with Marine Le Pen's far-right party in third, the Associated Press and Reuters reported, citing early polling projections. The left-wing alliance is projected to win 172-215 seats out of 577, potentially leading to a divided parliament with three major groups and no tradition of cooperation. Macron's centrist alliance is projected to be win 150-180 seats, while the RN is expected to secure 115 to 155 seats.

The context: Final results are anticipated late Sunday or early Monday. The outcome is a disappointment for the far-right, which increased its parliamentary seats but fell short of expectations, and for Le Pen, whose party was for weeks forecast to win the election. The left edged them out of the first spot, partly thanks to strategic cooperation with Macron's centrist alliance to prevent the far right from gaining power. Le Pen's opponents withdrew over two hundred candidates from three-way races in the second round in order to create a unified anti-RN vote.