PARIS ¨C Marine Le Pen¡¯s far-right National Rally (RN) party scored historic gains to win the first round of France¡¯s parliamentary election on Sunday, exit polls showed, but the final result will depend on days of horse trading before next week¡¯s runoff.
The RN was seen winning around 34% of the vote, exit polls from Ipsos, Ifop, OpinionWay and Elabe showed, in a huge setback for President Emmanuel Macron, who had called the snap election after his ticket was trounced by the RN in European Parliament elections earlier this month.
The RN¡¯s share of the vote was comfortably ahead of left-leaning and centrist rivals, including Macron¡¯s Together alliance, whose bloc was seen winning 20.5% to 23%.
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