Well, no one saw that coming…

The last-minute-arranged broad left-wing coalition known as The New Popular Front (NFP), was leading a tight French legislative election Sunday, ahead of both President Emmanuel Macron’s centrists and Le Pen’s rightists, projections showed.

Provisional estimates from four pollsters suggest the following seat projections:

Left Alliance Set for 170-215 Seats

Macron’s Group Set for 150-182 Seats

Le Pen’s Group Set for 110-158 Seats

It looks like the anti-National Rally front worked better than anyone expected, catching the polling companies by surprise.

The projected results suggest that the co-ordinated anti-RN strategy, under which the left and center tactically withdrew their candidates from run-offs, had paid off.

If confirmed in final voting tallies, the projections suggest that none of the three main blocs will be able easily to command a governing majority, potentially leaving France in a period of political gridlock.

There are some big barriers to that given that Macron himself has called France Unbowed – a big part of the left’s New Popular Front – an extremist party and some of his supports have called against voting for its candidates.

AP reports that the French leftist leader,Jean-Luc Melenchon says elections are an “immense relief for a majority of people,” demands prime minister resign.

Melenchon says the New Popular Front government would apply its program and nothing but the program as he refuses any negotiation with Macron’s party or any combination. As Bloomberg reports, that theoretically would mean some disruptive changes of economic policy, and by decree according to Melenchon:

Undoing the pension reform;

raising the minimum wage;

a 90% top marginal tax rate;

and freezing prices of some consumer staples.

Not a pretty picture for French bonds either way.

Andrea Tueni, head of sales trading at Saxo Banque France:

“This is a big surprise, it’s a real blow for the RN. That being said, it’s not necessarily good for markets: The Nouveau Front Populaire taking the lead could generate concerns due to their program which was the most poorly perceived by the markets.”

French National Rally Leader Jordan Bardella warns this vote “has thrown France into the arms of the far-Left.”

🇫🇷🔴 “Unfortunately, the alliance of dishonour and the dangerous electoral arrangements between #Macron, #Attal and the far left deprive the French of the governing policy they wanted when they voted for us last Sunday.” @J_Bardella speaks after projections showed the… pic.twitter.com/xFrMQKyqdQ

— FRANCE 24 English (@France24_en) July 7, 2024

Presumably all the globalist fear mongering over the so-called ‘Hitler-ite’ Le Pen pushed the French people back into the immigrant-loving arms of the Left? Or something else went down?