French election LIVE: Far right defeated in French election, finds shock exit poll

Former US presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has congratulated the French left “for taking on right-wing extremism and winning”.

Le Monde is reporting the results of 558 of the 577 seats up for grabs in France’s National Assembly election, citing the interior ministry.

According to the newspaper, the New Popular Front alliance has so far secured 177, while Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble coalition has 157, and the National Rally and its allies have 141.

There have been clashes with riot police in Paris and Nantes, with tear gas fired in the latter city, images taken by photojournalists suggest.

Despite intending to tender his resignation, French prime minister Gabriel Attal has signalled he will remain in the post during the upcoming Paris Olympics and for as long as needed – given that polling projections show that no party has won an outright majority.

There likely will be weeks of intense political negotiations to choose a new prime minister and form a government.

Here is the most recent projection from Ipsos:

The leftist New Popular Front is expected to win between 177 and 192 seats, the Macron-backing Ensemble could win between 152 and 158, while the National Rally and its far-right allies are expected to take 138 to 145 seats.

In Paris’s Stalingrad square, supporters on the left cheered and applauded as exit poll projections showing the alliance ahead – and the far right in third place – flashed up on a giant screen.

Cries of joy also rang out in Republique plaza in eastern Paris, with people spontaneously hugging strangers and several minutes of nonstop applause after the projections landed.

But France’s far right nevertheless appears to have made significant gains on the 89 seats it currently holds, with Ipsos’ projections suggesting National Rally could win between 132 to 152 seats.

France has voted to reject the far right, with a leftist coalition becoming the largest party in a hung parliament, shock exit poll results forecast.

In a dramatic turnaround on Sunday night, Marine Le Pen was dealt a bitter blow as Ipsos exit polls indicated her far-right National Rally had failed to capitalise on the ascendant trajectory which spooked centrist president Emmanuel Macron into calling the snap parliamentary elections.

Pollsters had widely expected National Rally to emerge as the largest party in France’s National Assembly, with most voters focused on the question of whether the far right could succeed in winning the majority needed to deliver the country’s first such government since the Nazi occupation.

Instead, it was the leftist New Popular Front – comprising the Socialists, Greens, Communists and Jean-Luc Melenchon’s far-left France Unbowed (LFI) – which was projected to have won the most seats in France’s National Assembly as polls closed at 8pm local time.

Reacting to the French exit polls, Nils Schmid, a member of the German parliament and foreign policy spokesperson for the Social Democratic Party said: “The worst has been avoided.”

But he added: “The president is politically weakened, even if he retains a central role in view of the unclear majority situation. Forming a government will be complicated.”

Poland’s premier Donald Tusk has given his verdict on the exit polls in France.

He said: “In Paris enthusiasm, in Moscow disappointment, in Kyiv relief. Enough to be happy in Warsaw.”