Image source, EPA

As we mentioned in our previous post, Jordan Bardella has challenged Jean-Luc Mélenchon, of the left-wing bloc, to a debate.

Mélenchon has now replied, saying in a post on X: "Mr Bardella is right, there is a need for a debate between the two projects for the French."

Mélenchon is the founder and former leader of the hard-left France Unbowed party and a prominent figure in the New Popular Front bloc, which is yet to choose their nominee for prime minister.

Because of that, Mélenchon suggests that Bardella debates one of the politicians from the France Unbowed, the biggest party in the bloc, who are likely to become prime ministerial candidates: Manuel Bompard, Mathilde Panot or Clémence Guetté.

Image source, Reuters

The 28-year-old leader of National Rally (RN) Jordan Bardella could be France's next prime minister now that RN has won 33.14% of the vote.

This morning, he published a letter rallying voters ahead of the second round of voting due to take place on Sunday.

In the letter, Bardella takes aim at the left-wing bloc New Popular Front, which came second in last night's first round, labelling them “agents of chaos” who pose an “existential threat” to France, and accusing them of antisemitism and of attacking the core principles of the French Republic.

Then, in a post on X, Bardella challenges Mélenchon, former presidential candidate from the hard-left France Unbowed party and is part of the left wing bloc, to a debate ahead of Sunday's second round.

"The French have two choices - either the alliance of the very worst and the extreme left in power, or national unity, the Republic and its values," he writes.

"I am therefore ready to take part in a debate with Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The French want clarity."

Whoever wins in the second-round, Emmanuel Macron has said he will not resign as president.

But if National Rally secures a majority, then this could open the door to almost three years of power-sharing, when the president of one party heads the state and another party runs the government.

It is known as cohabitation and it has happened before, with domestic policy in the hands of the prime minister and foreign and defence policy in the hands of the president.

There have been three periods of cohabitation in the past - the most recent coming between 1997 and 2002 when socialist Lionel Jospin was prime minister under centre-right President Jacques Chirac.

But, nothing has really prepared France for the kind of cohabitation that could occur after 7 July - where a centrist president could share power with a far right prime minister.

• You can read more here about the significance of France's election

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France's centre-right Republicans (LR) entered this election in disarray. Part of the party struck an alliance with the far-right National front.

But most Republican leaders rejected that strategy. One of them, Jean-François Copé, now says his group will decide whether or not to tactically pull out of races on a case-by-case basis.

"We will not give national instructions", he says, adding that voters remain "free in their choices".

The big question for all parties now is whether to withdraw third-placed candidates to favour a rival.

It's expected that moderate Republicans in that position will bow out to help centrist, and perhaps Socialist, candidates. But in many constituencies, LR will face the tough choice of aiding either hard-left or far-right candidates.

You're likely to hear this word a lot over the next few days. But what does it mean?

In short, it's a three-way run-off race between the candidates that have won at least 12.5% of the vote.

A total of 307 seats could be fought in triangulaires - a huge increase from eight in 2022 and just one in 2017.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the left wing bloc New Popular Front has said his alliance would withdraw candidates who finished third on Sunday from the run-off in order to block out National Rally candidates. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said the same about Macron's centrist alliance candidates last night.

The parties involved in the second round have to say which candidates are standing or withdrawing by Tuesday evening - so we'll have a clearer idea of how many races will be "triangulaires" in just a few hours.

The reason for this proliferation of "triangulaires"? The high turnout.

To make it to the run-off, a candidate needs to secure at least 12.5% of registered voters. So, the more voters, the more chances of a candidate to go through to the second round.

Image source, LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP

There's barely time even for a coffee here in Paris the morning after the night before, because the race is now on for the second round.

The campaign for the first round was already run at breakneck speed over just three weeks. Now there are just six days to decide the future of French politics.

The focus is on the 501 run-off battles across the country, because 76 MPs have already been elected outright by winning half the vote in their constituencies.

The horse-trading has already begun, with National Rally looking for an absolute majority and the other parties working out how to stop them.

RN leader Jordan Bardella - who wants to be PM - has already said he'll accept nothing less than more than half the seats in parliament.

His colleague Sébastien Chenu, who's been re-elected overnight, says they may still be able to work something out with friendly MPs if they don't get that all-important number of 289 seats.

Meanwhile Finance Minister Bruno Lemaire, who'll lose his government job next Sunday, has appealed to voters not to back the far right or the far left - and instead choose his party, the Socialists, Communists or Greens.

Since yesterday's vote, there's been a lot of talk around the high turnout of voters.

At 69.7%, the figure is the highest for a parliamentary first round since 1997, and 20 points higher than in 2022.

As a reminder, this was a snap election called by President Emmanuel Macron last month following European parliament elections in which his party lost to Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN) party.

Macron said last night that this turnout "proves the importance of this vote for all our compatriots and the desire to clarify the political situation".

Image source, Getty Images

For years Marine Le Pen, National Rally's leader in parliament, has sought to “de-diabolise” or detoxify her party from the antisemitic and extremist roots of her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, and his fellow founders of the National Front, which she renamed as National Rally.

Much of its focus now is on the cost-of-living crisis, but many of its strict anti-immigration policies remain and a ruling this year by the Council of State, France's highest court for administration, confirmed it could be considered “extreme right”.

France football captain Kylian Mbappé has warned his compatriots “the extremes are at the gates of power”, prompting Jordan Bardella, the president of RN, to hit back at multimillionaire sports figures "giving lessons to people struggling to make ends meet".

Bardella wants to ban French dual nationals from sensitive strategic posts, calling them "half-nationals". He also wants to limit social welfare for immigrants and get rid of the automatic right to French citizenship for children with foreign-born parents.

But a planned ban on wearing headscarves in public is for now not a priority.

Anti-Nato and anti-EU policies have also been softened and National Rally's close ties with Vladimir Putin's Russia have been quietly dropped.

Leaving the EU has not been on the agenda since 2022.

Instead, Bardella focuses on cutting VAT (sales tax) on energy and a list of 100 essential goods and repealing the Macron pension reforms in a matter of months.

As we just mentioned in our previous post, Sunday's second round election might not end with an outright majority.

As a reminder, there are 577 seats in the National Assembly, including 13 overseas districts and 11 constituencies that represent French expats abroad. To secure an absolute majority a party needs 289.

The Macron alliance had only 250 seats in the outgoing Assembly and had to build support from other parties every time to pass a law.

The first round, which just happened yesterday, has eliminated all candidates who failed to win the support of 12.5% of locally registered voters.

A total of 76 candidates scored 50% of the vote with a turnout of at least a quarter of the local electorate, meaning they are already through

Out of these, 39 belong to the National Rally (RN), 31 to the left wing coalition NFP, two to the Macron-led alliance and four to other parites.

This means there will be 501 run-offs on 7 July.

As we've been reporting, some candidates may drop out before then to give an ally a better chance of stopping a rival from winning - for example from the far right.

Last night's results show that the far right National Rally party have won 33.14% of the vote in the first round of France's parliamentary election.

This means the country could end up with a far-right government after the second round of voting takes place next Sunday.

Some politicians are now calling for tactical voting to deny far-right candidates power. But it's not clear that any group will take an outright majority once the dust settles after voting finishes later this week.

How do these French elections work? Why has Macron even called them? And what happens if a different party from President Macron's is in charge in parliament?

You can get the basics about how this vote works in our handy election explainer here.

Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN) has pulled off another victory and is now well on the way to its goal of turning French politics on its head.

There will be much talk in the coming days of centrist and left-wing candidates standing aside in round two in order to concentrate the anti-RN vote – and much wailing about the disappearance of the old Front Républicain (when the other parties used to agree to keep out the far-right).

But it would take an upset of monumental proportions to overturn the only conclusion that can be drawn from this first round of voting, which is that RN is now indisputably the dominant political force in France.

Read the rest of the analysis by our Paris correspondent Hugh Schofield here, external.

Good morning and welcome back to our coverage of the first round of France's parliamentary election.

The far right National Rally has for the first time come out on top with 33% of the vote.

However, only 76 candidates were elected outright last night - meaning hundreds of seats are still to play for in the runoff second round next Sunday.

What do last night's results mean, what will happen over the course of the next week and who could be France's next PM?

We'll bring you answers, analysis and context throughout the day right on this page.

1. The far-right National Rally achieved a remarkable - if predicted - score, with over 33% of the vote. It is, however, not clear whether they will manage to translate this success into an absolute majority in next Sunday's run-offs
2. A hastily cobbled-together and sometimes uneasy alliance of parties ranging from moderate socialists to far left candidates achieved 28%. French PM Gabriel Attal has warned the RN was "at the gates of power" and he and left-wing leaders have it a priority to stop the far right from reaching power
3. President Macron's alliance came third, with 21% - a disappointing showing, but better than the wipeout that some had anticipated
4. Turnout was the highest in decades, reaching 67%. It could be higher still for the second round next Sunday

We'll be wrapping up our coverage shortly, but you can scroll down this live page to see how the day - and night - unfolded.

And to find out what it all means, do read our Paris correspondent Hugh Schofield's analysis here.

Today's page was edited by Johanna Chisholm and Laura Gozzi. It was written by Henri Astier, Paul Kirby, Alexandra Fouché and Toby Lockhurst.

Image source, Getty Images

French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to call a snap election was "mistake”, a member of the president’s Renaissance party says.

Christopher Weissberg, who represents French nationals living in North America in the outgoing parliament, told the BBC World Service's Newshour programme that he was “flabbergasted" by the move:

"It was a political mistake. He [Mr Macron] tried to clarify positions of different parties, but in a way that was so difficult for any clear majority to win that it gave a real advantage to the far right.”

Mr Weissberg added that the only concern now should be avoiding a majority for the National Rally.

"We need to build up together a coalition to avoid the tragedy of the far right in power for the first time in France since the Second World War."

Image source, Reuters

Let's have a look at some of the high-profile candidates in these elections and how they are faring tonight:

• Former French President François Hollande came first in his constituency of Corrèze, external in central France with more than 37% of the votes, followed by a NR candidate (nearly 31%) and a Republicans candidate (nearly 29%) - so it looks as though he will have a three-way fight on his hands to win the second round
• French PM Gabriel Attal is ahead in his constituency in the Hauts-de-Seine in the Paris region, with three-quarters of the votes counted
• Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin is in a similar position in his constituency in the north of France
• In the Normandy region of Calvados, former PM Elisabeth Borne came second, external behind a RN candidate

Hundreds of New Popular Front (NFP) supporters have gathered on the Place de la République in the French capital, Paris, to express their opposition to the far-right National Rally (RN) after tonight's good results for the party:

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, AFP/Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Next Sunday's second round will include a record number of three-way races. According to an estimate by outlet France Info, as many as 315 constituencies could see such "triangulaires".

Haggling between parties will result in many third-placed candidates withdrawing for tactical reasons, so the final number remains unclear.

But there are bound to be many more three-horse races than in previous elections. The total was eight in 2022. In 2017 there was just one.

The reason for this proliferation of "triangulaires" is a high turnout. To make it to the run-off, a candidate needs to secure at least 12.5% of registered voters.

The more people take part, the easier it is to reach this threshold. In at least one constituency today, four candidates cleared the hurdle.

The other reason is the realignment of French politics into three blocks: Macron's centre, the left and the hard right. The days of the straightforward left-right split are gone.

The upshot: a second round that is harder to call than ever.

As the first vote projections appeared on two large TV screens here, the crowd of National Rally supporters erupted.

Hundreds of people who back the party leapt to their feet, cheered and hugged each other. The party's projected first place in the legislative elections is a historic moment for the party and for France.

The champagne, which was already flowing here before the projection was released, has continued to do so since. Chants of “Marine! Marine!” filled this community centre in a small town in the north east of France.

Leader Marine Le Pen appeared on a stage, the French tricolor behind her, and said she had been returned to the National Assembly to represent this district, for the first time in the first round without the need for a run-off contest. Another first.

After she addressed her adoring supporters, they waved the French flag and sang the national anthem, the Marseillaise.

The main lights in this hall are off, there are coloured spotlights shining, and it has the aroma and high energy music of a nightclub. This is a party partying.

But tomorrow there is more campaigning to do if they are to secure the parliamentary majority that Marine Le Pen wants and, she says, that France needs.

As we just mentioned in our previous post, next week's second round election might not end with an outright majority.

As a reminder, there are 577 seats in the National Assembly, including 13 overseas districts and 11 constituencies that represent French expats abroad. To secure an absolute majority a party needs 289.

The Macron alliance had only 250 seats in the outgoing Assembly and had to build support from other parties every time to pass a law.

The first round, which just happened today, eliminates all candidates who fail to win the support of 12.5% of locally registered voters.

Anyone who scores 50% of the vote with a turnout of at least a quarter of the local electorate wins automatically. That happens in a handful of constituencies.

The second round, what we'll be turning our attention to on 7 July, is a series of run-offs fought either by two, three or sometimes four candidates.

As we've been reporting, some candidates may drop out before then to give an ally a better chance of stopping a rival from winning - for example from the far right.

Image source, .

Tonight's exit polls show that the far right National Rally party is on course to win the first round of France's parliamentary election.

This means the country could end up with a far-right government after the second round of voting takes place next Sunday.

Some politicians are now calling for tactical voting to deny far-right candidates power. But it's not clear that any group will take an outright majority once the dust settles after voting finishes later this week.

How do these French elections work? Why has Macron even called them? And what happens if a different party from President Macron's is in charge in parliament?

You can get the basics about how this vote works in our handy election explainer here.