
No one expected this.
While Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party was not expected to secure a majority in France's 577-seat Parliament, it was expected to win more than 200 seats.
If early but often accurate French forecasts are to be believed, the National Assembly will finish third with around 150 MPs.
In its place, the big winner is the recently formed leftist alliance, the New National Front – a coalition of the Greens, Social Democrats, Communists and Jean-Luc Melenchon's leftist France Unsubdued party. This broad coalition is expected to have close to 200 elected deputies.
Even the center party of President Emmanuel Macron, "Ensemble" is expected to come before Le Pen's party. What caused this surprise?
First, turnout, 67 percent, which is the highest in French parliamentary elections this century. It seems clear that talks about the most important vote in the country's history have animated the electorate against the National Rally.
Then comes the "Fronti Republik", the unofficial but successful collaboration against the National Rally in about 200 constituencies to support the MPs who had the best chance of defeating Le Pen's candidates.
The "Fronti Republik" often thrives when several parties from the center right to the left compete against each other.
While the early forecasts came as a huge relief to many in Europe this evening, nothing is over yet.
Macron's power, at least domestically, has weakened. It will be difficult to form a Government in such a divided Parliament, because the leftist alliance and Macron's center party cannot see each other in the eye, not to mention some parties within the alliance itself.
If a coalition is formed, it will be weak and likely chaotic.
Holding new elections when legally possible after one year cannot be ruled out.
And it cannot be denied that Le Pen is waiting for a better moment, in case of new parliamentary elections and for the big prize: the presidential elections in 2027.