France’s progressives keep out the far right, but what could happen next?

People gather in Paris’s Place de la République following the shock exit poll during the second round of the parliamentary elections. Photograph: Aurélien Morissard/AP

The New Popular Front (NFP), a left-green alliance dominated by Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s radical left France Unbowed (LFI), has emerged as the shock winner of France’s snap election, with 182 MPs in the 577-seat assembly.

President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Together coalition will have 163 deputies, while Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) and its allies, who last week were eyeing a majority, have 143.