Against all expectations, France's left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) alliance came out on top in the second round of snap legislative elections on Sunday, July 7. The NFP won 182 seats in the Assemblée Nationale, ahead of the presidential coalition and its 168 seats. In third place, the far-right Rassemblement National won 143 seats, well below poll estimates between the two rounds.

While this was already the case in the previous legislature, where President Emmanuel Macron's coalition had a relative majority, having three political blocs of similar strength makes building a majority far more complicated. In this unprecedented situation, the different party leaders don't all agree on what should be done.

The leader of the left-wing La France Insoumise party, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, asserted that Macron had a "duty to call the NFP to govern." Meanwhile, the president's office announced that he would wait for "the new Assemblée to take shape" before appointing a prime minister. The current head of government, Gabriel Attal, tendered his resignation on Monday, but Macron asked him to stay on as prime minister "for the moment" so as to maintain the "stability" of the country.