What just happened in France’s shocking election?

No one expected this. Sure, it’s dramatic, but it’s shocking.

As these images flash across all of France’s main channels, far-right Marine Le Pen and her young Prime Minister-designate Jordan Bardera are marching to victory.

The left won, with an unexpected comeback by Macron’s centrist party pushing the far-right National Rally (RN) into third place.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a veteran left-wing firebrand considered an extremist by his critics, wasted no time in declaring victory.

“The president must call on the New Popular Front to govern,” he told supporters in Stalingrad Square, insisting that Macron must admit that he and his coalition have failed.

His coalition, hastily assembled for President Macron’s unexpected election, included his own radical French Insubordination party, as well as the Greens, Socialists and Communists, and even Trotskyists. But their victory was not enough to rule.

France will have a hung parliament. None of the three groups alone can hold an absolute majority of 289 seats in the 577-seat parliament.

According to police data, as soon as Mélenchon gave his speech, he headed to a larger square, Place de la République, to celebrate his success with 8,000 people.

For supporters rallying across the country, the champagne quickly faded at the celebrations in the Bois de Vincennes, southwest of Paris.

Just a week ago, all talk was of a possible supermajority, and days before the vote, Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardera were still talking about their chances.

Marine Le Pen shows courage. “Two years ago we had only seven MPs. Tonight, RN is the number one party in France in terms of the number of MPs.”

There were 88 MPs in the last Parliament and now there are over 140, so she’s right. And no other party has more than 100 MPs, as both the Macronists and the Popular Front are in alliance.

Jordan Bardera complained that his party was frustrated by an unnatural “coalition of shame” formed by a “single party” composed of Macron’s camp and the left. He was not wrong about this unnatural alliance, but it was only a temporary convenience.

More than 200 candidates who considered themselves part of the “Republican Front” withdrew from the second round so that better opponents could prevent RN from winning.

Even Marine Le Pen’s sister Marie-Caroline can’t bring a glimmer of good news from her own Le Mans campaign battle.

Her bid to enter parliament failed by just 225 votes, defeated by Mélenchon’s candidate Elise Leboucher after Macron’s candidate withdrew.

The turnout was 66.63%, the highest for a second round of parliamentary voting since 1997. Even if the RN vote is maintained, this time it will have to contend with non-RN votes, which are often used tactically to create a “barrage” or to stop them.

Across France, the RN is losing the runoffs it needs to win.

Some of their candidates lack appeal.

There’s a woman who pledged to stop making racist jokes if she’s elected in the Mont-Dôme; and a poorly equipped young man in the southeastern Haute-Savoie province who took part in a televised campaign against his centrist rivals Debate, but make little sense about anything.

They all lost, but they reflected the RN’s huge progress in rural areas.

The RN took 32% of the vote – 37% of which together with their right-wing allies – and for more than 10 million voters, a taboo had been broken.

In Meaux, east of Paris, RN won, but not by much.

After voting, Claudine said people she knew often didn’t admit to voting for an RN unless they were with close friends.

Ahead of the expected results at 8pm, speculation was rife over whether President Macron would speak. Sources say he attended the meeting 90 minutes early.

Embattled Prime Minister Gabriel Attal finally appears to have given his government a response.

Four weeks ago, when Macron revealed his electoral plans, he sat across from the president with his arms crossed and expressionless.

Now, he has announced that he will submit his resignation to his bosses in the morning but will stay on as long as his responsibilities are fulfilled.

Mr. Attar is expected to fly to Washington on Tuesday evening for a NATO meeting. It’s hard to imagine him being replaced.

France has entered a period of political instability with no obvious way out. There were rumors of riots in the streets, but only a handful of incidents were reported in Paris and cities such as Nantes and Lyon.

All eyes are now on the president, who must find a way out of the impasse.

The new National Assembly will convene in 10 days, but the Paris Olympics will open on July 26, and France may need a period of calm.

The left-leaning newspaper Liberation summed up the evening with a headline this is crazy.

To use a French colloquial phrase, “It’s crazy,” but for them, it’s also a relief that voters have stopped Republicans from campaigning for power.