MOMENT NATIONAL RALLY MEMBERS REACT TO SHOCK FRENCH EXIT POLL

This is the moment champagne swigging National Rally members react to the shock French exit poll that predicts Marine Le Pen's party will miss out on forming the government.

Footage shows several members of the National Rally (RN) with champagne glasses in their hands as they watch the exit poll results being announced.

But when they realise that the RN only came third after a newly-formed left-wing coalition, the New Popular Front (NFP), and Emmanuel Macron's centrists, their smiles falter and one of them takes a big gulp of champagne. 

Veteran presidential candidate Marine Le Pen's party led the race after the first round of elections on June 30, with opinion polls predicting that she would lead the biggest party in Parliament.

Now RN's hopes of forming France's first hard-right government since the War have been shattered, as it is expected to only take 115-150 seats, while the NFP is on course to have 172-215 MPs and Macron's party 150-180. 

In a sombre speech after the second-round legislative election, Jordan Bardella, the president of the RN, denounced the political manoeuvring that led his party to fall far short of expectations.

An unprecedented number of candidates who qualified for the runoff stepped aside to allow an opponent to go head-to-head with the National Rally candidate, increasing the chances of defeating them.

Despite projections widely considered disappointing for the anti-immigration, nationalist party, it still increased its seat count in parliament to an unprecedented high, according to polling projections.

'Tonight, by deliberately taking the responsibility to paralyse our institutions, Emmanuel Macron ... is consequently depriving the French people of any responses to their daily problems for many months to come,' Mr Bardella said.

The snap legislative elections in this nuclear-armed nation and major economy will influence the war in Ukraine, global diplomacy and Europe's economic stability.

France now faces the prospect of weeks of political machinations to determine who will be prime minister and lead the National Assembly. 

And Mr Macron faces the prospect of leading the country alongside a prime minister opposed to most of his domestic policies.

French leftist leader Jean-Luc Melenchon called the projections an 'immense relief for a majority of people in our country' and he demanded the resignation of the prime minister.

Mr Melenchon is the most prominent of the leftist leaders who unexpectedly came together ahead of the two-round elections.

The projections, if confirmed by official counts expected later on Sunday or early on Monday, plunge a pillar of the European Union and its second-largest economy into intense uncertainty, with no clarity about who might partner with Mr Macron as prime minister in governing France.

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2024-07-07T21:55:07Z dg43tfdfdgfd