What the Mood Is Like in France After Surprise Election Results

The final tally confirms that the left has the most seats in the National Assembly, with the far right third. Now, there’s a scramble to figure out a way forward.

“And now, what do we do?” blared the front page headline of Le Parisien, a daily newspaper, as the shock of Sunday’s election results began to sink in.

The day after a historic election, France awoke to final results that none of the polls had predicted. The left-wing coalition’s New Popular Front took the most seats in the National Assembly, but nowhere near enough to form a government, followed by President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist coalition, which lost scores of seats. Finally, in third place, was the party that pollsters and pundits alike had expected to lead — the far-right National Rally.

Now the question gripping the country was who would govern France, and how.

In a country with little taste for political compromise and collaboration, it is unclear how a government can be formed and take on the important work of passing the country’s budget and enacting new laws.

On Monday morning, one question was answered, but seemingly only for now. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, from Mr. Macron’s party and once a favorite of the president’s, offered his resignation, but Mr. Macron asked him to stay on for the time being “to ensure the country’s stability,” the Élysée Palace said.

Mr. Macron will now need to wrestle with whom he wants as prime minister. The challenge will be naming someone capable of forming a government that the newly seated lawmakers on the left and the right will not topple with a no-confidence vote.