Goes to show what the Left is capable of, if only they postpone their infighting until AFTER the election 😅

French here. The analyst got one thing wrong : the left alliance mostly disagrees on the form(especially on foreign relations) but they got along on most issues in their manifesto : pensions, tax, anti racism, increase of minimum wages, ecological transition (except on nuclear energy), Gaza, Ukraine, etc. They’re actually the only political offer that had a wide and very complete manifesto.

To resume the french system: First round, you vote for the guy you like. Second round, you kick out the guy you like the least

Omg their system prevents vote splitting it's genius. Like ranked choice.

Can we all just celebrate that this shows the majority do not want the toxicity of people like Le Pen's and Farage's politics.

Cant believe a Centrist actually DID something and didnt just sit around validating actual facists. Well done France

high turnouts always swing left

Thank goodness the majority of the French still remember/recall what happened the last time the far-right came into power with their neighbour, Germany.

LePenn's already crying it was stolen, it was rigged...Take your L with some dignity Lady.

France 2 Nazi's 0

On a fait la fête hier soir ! Crushing the faschos is the priority!!

The French LEFT didn't defeat anyone. The WHOLE of the French electorate (Le Front Républicain) defeated Fascism . 🇫🇷🇪🇺 (Our seat went extreme right in the first round 😮.)

Frustration with the French system is entirely out of place. It's quite close to rank choice voting and gave the best possible result because of (& thank goodness for) the agreements for the third place candidate to stand down. ...and imagine the disaster, otherwise. If you take a non-partisan view you would have to agree that the outcome preferred by most has transpired.

When you unite, you can defeat evil. A lesson to be learned for sure

The sun has risen on a freshly laundered Labour country. Ahh, the smell of freshly baked Thick sliced Competence, generously spread with integrity !

I still can't see why this is such a shock. The French have been down this tactical voting route many times before in Presidential and Assembly elections with voters "holding their nose" and casting votes to keep the Rassemblement National (formerly the Front National) out. The worry has to be the growing support for the RN in the face of poor economic performance, concerns about immigration and unemployment levels. The next problem is that La France Insoumise, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, is not very popular either and the centreright through to the centre-left won't work with LFI or RN.

Lots of left-wing candidates stood down in constituencies where they were in third place. Can't say the same for all of the Ensemble candidates who were in third place but at least the RN was not able to get an absolute majority. Strategic voting for the win. However, the RN should not be given the space to grow its movement, which means the NFP needs to fight harder and in united fashion for workers' rights and against the bigoty and hatred coming from the far-right. Sadly, between 2022 and now, nearly double the number of people voted for the RN and their reactionary talking points have made it into mainstream political discourse in France. It will take many years to undo this.

IT'S NOT A SHOCK HERE IN FRANCE 🇨🇵🇨🇵🇨🇵 Nobody takes any notice of the Premier tour 🙄 And nobody expected the deuxiem tour to reflect the result. It hasn't done so for 50 years. Typical british media, can't even get the translation of le Penn's party correct F.F.S.😂😂

Just right wingers continuing their L streak 😂

Shame we didn’t have a two round election system for Brexit…

Allies 1 Axis 0

This just shows the lunacy of proportional representation in its current format. There is now a power vacuum in France which doesn't benefit anyone in the country.

The trend recently is just call it rigged and unfair if you lost because you couldn't possibly lose because no one wants your policies 😅

I'm an Australian-French citizen and live in Marseille. You can add me to the 'relieved' list. My opinion is that Macron knew what he was doing. This was no mistake and the outcome is pretty much the best he could hope for (and probably predicted) given a political climate that is largely against him and his style of governing/narcissicism. His party performed second best when few seemed to imagine that was possible. Including moi.

Rural Pennsylvania here. Thank you James. Things are getting interesting. Shove Left.

Well done to the French Risistence .

Congratulations on your upset victory,but retirement at 60??????????What does that do to the economy?

Why aren’t they called the “far left”?

It's not actually a shock, because the French system isn't FPTP meaning all the other parties allied against the RN in the second round (something known as the "Front républicain"). What is worrying is that the far right gets over a third of the vote share but fortunately in a direct face-off against any other candidate, 1/3 of the vote means you lose more often than not. The RN is at an all-time high but they are still some way off getting into power despite going from 88 to 140 something seats. No pasaran!

The French system makes so much sense.

The BBC said this could well happen so i don't think its a shock. But everything needs to be hyped these days to give the media something to bang on about.

I am pretty sure that Sophie is very sad that the Tories were demolished... Yes, pretty sure!

There is no equivalent to the French Left in the UK .... Macrons alliance is more aligned with the UK Labour party

Marie le Pen. :far right ?? > wrong description... " right of the middle " - as for extremism...I would quote the Far Left as extremists ! Looking at what they have done ..We will now see an ideologically fractured France.

Real democxracy, avoiding things like leaving the EU and allowing a clown to gain power. Think on.

3-way candidates in the second round is actually relatively rare.

So much for that rise of the Right wing in Europe eh? haha

Very interesting outsiders like this lady view it as a shock because Auclair and other French predicted this a week or two ago.

They're all going to retire at 55!

The dumbest press loves"divided".😂😂

This comparison of Melenchon with Corbyn is nonsense. Melenchon is closer to someone like Lenin. Corbyn for all his faults is a democrat; Melenchon is not.

I don't agree with her politics BUT let's not pretend the left and right didn't use in my opinion undemocratic means to make sure it didn't happen. That's why if Britain ever has Proportional representational voting it must be illegal to stand down candidates in areas to attempt to keep out a party. I called this out when Farage did the same to not split the vote with Boris Johnson. All you do is breed anger at the electoral system. Look at Britain today, 80% of eligible voters didn't vote for Labour and not a peep from my side of the political spectrum on the left. Yet if that was the Tories my side would be demanding reform to the voting system.

French left ??? So not far left , left , left of center and center, green , red , conglomeration

O'B Please, go and get yourself a Job & don't forget to call into the Shrink. Any Chance of a Bar

Goodbye France

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

The French populace, after all their disagreements, realize that Russia, China and the other dictatorships in the world are not utopias.

most French outcome

Of course they aren't going to do much for a while. Les grandes vacances are France's leading national institution. Nothing gets done in August, as it should be.

I would make a comment about unwise election timings and a disunited nation. However, "those who live in glass houses..."

"days if not weeks" before a new government. Gee, if that was Belgium it would be "months if not years"... But yeah, they could setup a technocratic government relatively quickly. I don't see a majority coalition government in a matter of weeks.

If you don't care, don't go on air.

Is North Korea an example of an undivided state?

Did they steal it?

I don't see any surprise in this. French elections are always decided in the second round!

Incredible 😊

The broad church left coalition that the analyst refers to here does have its disagreements (particularly over France's NATO membership, reform of European institutions, and the role of nuclear energy in the green transition) but it also has a powerful shared program (particularly around reversing Macron's recent welfare and retirement 'reforms', the implementation of green transition policies, moving France to a system of proportional representation, anti-racism etc). So, personally, I wouldn't get carried away on the differences for now.

What about the Judean People's Front?

Where are all the weird accounts with two names followed by a serial number?

France closes in August every year 😊.

And in spite all the electoral chaos in both Britain and France - rank order preferential voting is still rejected by the political geniuses in both countries.

The left and Center left have plenty in common. I don't think it's going to be as divided as everyone thinks

Farago: But but its a stitchup by the establishment , i hate democratic elections

Looked end of the day, the voting system is waaaaay better than in the UK. You get through the second round, and a majority has to be won in the run off. I don't understand why anybody thought the silent majority wouldn't back any opposition to the far-right. Can I just say that is horrendously repressed Scottish accent - you're Scottish, let it go.

In Macron's presidential election he won on the second ballot despite not having a staggering support in the first. The centre right and the centre and the left came together to back a not stunningly popular choice against extremism and the second ballot got him elected. The first and second ballots are always very different. This was not a presidential election but his party stood and he is now even more unpopular so there were always going to be a certain number of people who gold their noses and vote le penn as she feigns respectability. The second ballot with less candidates is always very different when faced with a stark choice between le penn and anything else... She has her base supporters plus the remaining nose holders vs a widely disliked Macron's party.. more nose holding and an alternative centrist and left and far left coalition. It isn't all that suprising that centre left supporters felt ok to join the left where they disliked Macron and had to vote against le penn. If Britain had done the same in the 'Brexit election' before this one then Britain would not have had Brexit without a second referendum and the chaos and incompetence and ecconomics of the last term of office. I don't think what happened in france was all that shocking if you're outide the too close to the problem media. It's more a relief than anything else.

Macrons wife is a lovely man 😃

Not the right who are rioting it it !

Take a drink evertime they say 'FaR RigHT'

Why not the 'far left'?

Its a deal not a victory.

See what happens james when you centerists side with your socialist allies instead of engaging in footballification (which O'Brien constantly says he doesn't do) you could've helped keep Boris and Sunak out but you opted for footballification and partisan poltics. Something of which he accuses the left of quite a lot

This is the best news ever, La Penn and her far right party lost 100 seats. She does not represent the majority thus was rejected. The French public voiced their opinion in votes.

Le Pen humiliation?

It's a very divided Britain

Mélanchon is not an extremist and it is not a miracle that the left has won. Mélanchon has been around for a long time and has been campaigning with or without the other lefties. All lefties talk to one another despite the lack of understanding on some subjects. Being diverse does not mean being divided!

France- ISTAN😮

I see no far right, only a lot of far left...

Hopefully America elects the right King.

Who won the popular vote?

French far left you mean .

Europe's Right Wing Fever broke - next up, America.

Love you, France! 🇫🇷

What a great news this morning - the pendulum is swinging back from the extreme right towards the center - see Britain and now France. Don´t forget Poland before too.

Far Right yawn

Nice

Two down....Trump to go!!! Vive La France!

The people have spoken!!! The futures so bright, the French needs to wear shades.

*LBC CENSORS COMMENTS !!!*

If all three works together to make their country better for the people then i would call that democracy

RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT YOU PLANKS

She says far right but never far left 😅😅😅

Loony far left against far right then

LBC the French far left did not defeat the National Party. All the parties ganged up against one party, That is not democratic!

France now called Frankenstan

Same here except the fascists amongst us in our U.K., hide away. Keep it covert

Send far right to far far right 😂

Humans win🙃

Drink everytime they say far right. Should ask them what makes them "far right".. asking them to retire at 66 means you're far right in France..

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Jeremy Corbyn is a moderate!!