The maths

French President Emmanuel Macron's centrist Ensemble alliance lost its majority in the French Parliament, winning 244 seats in the 577-member chamber in elections, according to full results published by the Interior Ministry on Monday.

The results mean that Macron's Together alliance is well short of the 289 seats needed for an overall majority. 

The NUPES left-wing coalition won 137 seats, making it the main opposition force and Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally achieved 89 seats.

Coalition building has not been a feature of post-war politics in France and there is now minimal experience or tradition in consensus building.

Macron may now try to reach out to the conservative Les Republicains party, the only mainstream party he could realistically turn to with the numbers to push him over the 289 threshold for an absolute majority.

Turnout was low, with the abstention rate recorded at 53.77 percent, according to the Interior Ministry, higher than the first round but not beating the record worst turnout of 2017.  

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The winners

Political parties on both the left and the right have been celebrating the results of the elections.

The country's new left-wing bloc has become the largest opposition force in Parliament. It's made up of the hard-left La France Insoumise (LFI), the Socialist Party, the Greens and Communists - under the helm of the Eurosceptic far-left veteran Jean-Luc Melenchon.

In another significant change for French politics, far-right leader Marine Le Pen's National Rally party has scored a ten-fold increase in MPs with 89 seats. It is the party's biggest-ever representation in the assembly - up from just two in 2012.

For the lates on the election watch our correspondent Ross Cullen's take from Paris

The losers

Emmanuel Macron lost his absolute majority.

The result mean that in many ways it will feel like a defeat for his centrist alliance as it will now be much harder for Macron to implement his legislation and the alliance may now seek a coalition.

For Elisabeth Borne, a left of center technocrat, her position now is a lot more perilous. ​​Hard-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon, who leads the NUPES alliance, said he would bring a motion of no confidence against Borne as early as July.

Macron will now be forced to have a Cabinet reshuffle after ministers lost seats and he may choose to replace Borne. 

Health Minister Brigitte Bourguignon, Maritime Minister Justine Benin and Environment Minister Amelie de Montchalin — a pillar of Macron's administration over the last years — all lost and will now exit the government. 

Two other close Macron allies, Parliament speaker Richard Ferrand and former interior minister Christophe Castaner, both have acknowledged defeat in the fight for their seats.

The results have also been another disappointment in many eyes for the right wing Republican (LR) party. Although they won 61 seats, it is only seven percent of the vote for the pro-European Gaullist party once led by Nicolas Sarkozy and founded by Jacques Chirac.

While the results were considered an overall success for NUPES, their candidate Cedric Villani suffered disappointment as he was beaten by the Ensemble rival by just 19 votes.

Reactions

Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the NUPES alliance who become the main opposition block celebrated, saying: "The rout of the presidential party is complete and no clear majority is in sight." 

He added: "It is the failure of Macronism and the moral failure of those who lecture us."

Clementine Autain, one of his top lieutenants, said the results were a vindication of the left's strategy.

"This is a gathering of the forces for a social and ecological transformation on the basis of a profound change of society," she said.

There was also plenty of optimism on the right from Marine Le Pen's National Rally.

"We have achieved our three objectives: that of making Emmanuel Macron a minority president, without control of power and that of pursuing the political recomposition essential to democratic renewal," a triumphant Le Pen told reporters after being re-elected in northern France and vowing to be a respectful opposition.

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire called the outcome a "democratic shock" and added that if other blocs did not cooperate, "this would block our capacity to reform and protect the French."

Senior Macron officials have also started to try driving a wedge through different factions of the NUPES alliance, accusing LFI of being a party of the extremes and an unconstructive force in parliament over the last five years.

"How many times did you join the National Front in Parliament?" Justice Minister Eric Dupont-Moretti asked LFI stalwart Manuel Bompard on France 2 television. "The extremes join each other."

Trends

Abstention and apathy played a big part in the election, with turnout at just 46 percent. It was the young and poorer people who, in particular, stayed away en masse. Only 29 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds voted compared with 66 percent of those over 70. It was also notable at this election that, whereas normally moderate voters tend to try to keep away extremes in a so-called republican front, that did not happen. As a result it allowed in the National Rally and vindicated Le Pen's strategy to recast the party's image, while also refusing to join forces with pundit-turned-nationalist politician Eric Zemmour after the presidential vote.

The voting was divided into three antagonistic groups of the far right, the left-far left and the center - and it appears that during the second round of voting on Sunday, when people didn't have their preferred candidate, they just stayed away.

Polling analysis from Ipsos showed that 72 percent of Macron supporters abstained in a head-to-head between NUPES and National Rally - opening the door more for the right-wing party. Then similarly 72 percent of NUPES supporters didn't vote when it was between Macron's party and the National Rally. 

The French Polynesian pro-independence Tavini Huiraatira Party also had an unprecedented victory in all three seats and now will join the NUPES coalition. Strikingly, the party's 21-year-old Tematai Le Gayic candidate was elected and becomes the youngest person ever to enter the Fifth French Republic's National Assembly. 

Impact

It is a significant blow for Macron's party, which is pushing for further European integration, in its attempts to pass legislation. He was hoping to stamp his second term with an ambitious programme of tax cuts, welfare reform and raising the retirement age. All that is now in question.

For the left coalition, it campaigned on lowering the retirement age from 62 to 60 as well as raising the minimum wage and establishing price caps for essential goods.

But there is now plenty of doubt over the future of NUPES and how easy it will be to remain together with so many differences. Disagreements on plenty of areas from Europe to policing were put to one side for the elections.

Macron will have to work now with other parties to get his legislation passed.

But could the government now be thrown out by the opposition parties with a vote of censure? Government is controlled by Parliament through questioning, inquiries and requests for information. To bring down the government there would need to be at least 289 votes against it.