The new election in France

The Prime Minister resigns: "No one has a majority"

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal will hand in his resignation to President Macron on Monday, he announced.

- No political bloc has a majority, he says and continues:

- Now we must be ready to question everything in our search for a new way forward.

However, the Prime Minister adds that if his application is rejected by Macron, he will carry out his duty "for as long as it takes", in light of the start of the Summer Olympics in Paris on July 26.

Attal belongs to Macron's Renaissance party, which is part of the center alliance Ensemble. According to the polling station survey, they appear to be the second largest after the left-wing alliance NFP.

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Shock in the French election: The left becomes the biggest - National collection third

The left-wing alliance Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) surprisingly looks to be the largest in the second round of the French parliamentary elections, according to the first polling station survey from Ipsos/Talan.

The NFP looks set to get 172 to 192 seats. Emmanuel Macron's center alliance Ensemble is heading towards 150 to 170 seats, and the pre-tipped favorite – the far-right party National Gathering – towards 132 to 152 seats.

No one looks set to get their own majority, which requires 289 of the 577 mandates in the polling station survey. As a result, a likely tortuous process to form a government now awaits.

In the first round of the new election, National Gathering became the largest party with 33 percent of the vote, compared to 28 percent for NFP and 21 percent for Ensemble.

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Mélenchon's joy after the first result: "Relief"

The leftist alliance NFP, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, looks set to be the largest in the French election according to the first polling station survey. Immediately after the first forecast, the leftist leader spoke out and demanded that President Emmanuel Macron admit defeat.

He says that the far-right party National Gathering is "far from an absolute majority".

- It is a huge relief for a majority of the people in our country.

Mélenchon also says Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who belongs to Macron's Renaissance party, must resign. The left alliance is ready to rule France, he states.

Olivier Faure leads the Socialist Party, which is also part of the NFP. He calls the news "a sigh of relief", but adds:

- We will not be part of any coalition of opposites.