On Sunday night the French Left were dancing in the streets, Emmanuel Macron’s camp were weakened but not wiped out and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally failed to wrest power with a parliamentary majority - coming a humiliating third.

This is the media narrative emanating from Sunday’s shock second round of French parliamentary elections, which previous polls had suggested could catapult the anti-immigration, Eurosceptic National Rally into France’s political driving seat.

But look closely and the numbers tell a slightly different story.

True, the pre-election polls were wide of the mark but so is the idea that this was a major defeat for the Le Pen camp.

The RN had a handful of MPs in 2017, won 89 seats in 2022 and the space of two years is heading to double that amount. Indeed, if early results are confirmed, it will become the largest single party force in French parliament, even if bereft of allies, it will not be able to forge an absolute majority.

Mr Macron, meanwhile, had privately predicted that his Together alliance could win back the absolute majority it lost two years ago in these snap elections. While his camp has not been wiped out, his prediction has proved totally erroneous.

Ensemble has seen his majority drop from 350 in 2017, to 245 in 2022 to a far lower figure today.

Elysée sources insist that Mr Macron’s bet to “clarify” French politics has paid off and that he will now somehow manage to cobble together a majority with “reasonable” centre-Left and centre-Right forces.

That may yet prove wishful thinking, and parliamentary paralysis may ensue. Mr Macron’s ability to govern effectively - if at all - will be called into question in the coming days.

Already, the Left’s largest force, led by firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s France Unbowed, has called for the President to resign and insisted it will apply the entirety of its vastly dispendious programme or not at all - apparently ruling out any compromise.

All this could be music to Ms Le Pen’s ears.

In recent days, Mr Macron’s father confirmed swirling media reports that one of the centrist president’s main aims for calling snap elections was to hand the Le Pen camp greater power. 

“If the RN shows in two years that it is completely incapable of governing, we can hope that it will go no further. That’s what my son told me two months before the European elections,” he reasoned.

But the reverse will now take place.

While the RN has bolstered its numbers in parliament, it will happily remain an opposition force that can continue to do what it does best; blame others for France’s problems and promise sunlit uplands if the French hand it all the levers of power.

Hence Ms Le Pen’s message that Sunday’s election has merely “deferred” her ultimate victory in 2027.

“The tide is rising. It didn’t rise high enough this time, but it continues to rise and, as a result, our victory is only delayed.”

Sunday’s results have not killed off all chances of that prediction, au contraire.