Three days after the election, Emmanuel Macron had still not commented on the new balance of power in the country. There was silence at the Elysee. The French president was playing for time before appointing a new government. Though his prime minister, Gabriel Attal, resigned on Monday, he had decided to keep him in power until further notice. Observers doubted that France would have a new government before the Olympic Games came to an end in August.

The new National Assembly, whose first session will be on July 18, is now dominated by three comparably large political camps. The broad left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) alliance has 182 seats, the president's centrist Together bloc has 168, and Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN) has 143.

The surprise winner, the New People's Front, is still sorting out who to propose as the new prime minister to the president.

The controversial founder of the far-left party France Unbowed (La France insoumise, LFI) did not run for a seat in parliament and the party is currently coordinated by Manuel Bompard, who led the negotiations to form a New Popular Front with the Socialists, Communists and Greens in France. It currently seems unlikely that Macron would appoint either Melenchon........

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