Marine Le Pen and her far-right National Rally (RN) party have won a landslide victory in France's snap election, prompting backlash from rival domestic parties and foreign politicians.
The RN won about 34 percent of the vote in the first round of parliamentary elections, an important victory but not one that would give the party an absolute majority in parliament.
Le Pen, followed by the leftist New Popular Front (NFP) coalition with around 29 percent and President Emmanuel Macron's centrist Ensemble alliance with around 20.5 percent, called on French citizens to vote for her party during the second round.
Despite his defeat, Macron welcomed the high turnout of 65.8 percent and reiterated his call to confront the far right in the second round.
“In the face of the National Rally, the time has come for a great unity, clearly democratic and republican for the second round,” the president stressed in an official statement.
Jean-Luc Melenchon, the centre-left leader, said the president had suffered a “hard and indisputable defeat” and was to blame for the shock decision to dissolve parliament, but that stopping the far right was the priority.
“Not one more vote for the RN, not one more seat for the RN,” he stressed.
'Chaos and failure'
In her first comments following the results of the first French round, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Monday that the “constant attempt to demonize” far-right voters was losing impact.
“The constant attempt to demonize and corner people who do not vote for the left… is a trick that fewer and fewer people fall for,” Meloni told the Adnkronos news agency.
In the United Kingdom, election candidate Keir Starmer of the Labor Party said the far-right victory in France shows that the left must demonstrate that “only progressives have answers” to the problems in the United Kingdom and across Europe.
“We have to make that progressive call. But in doing so we have to understand why, certainly in the UK after 14 years of chaos and failure, people are becoming dissatisfied with politics, returning politics to service and continuing to argue that politics is a force for the good,” he said.
Israeli Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli said he was “impressed” by the positions taken by Le Pen, adding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also appears to “have the same opinion.”
Chikli told public broadcaster Kan on Monday that it would be “excellent for Israel” if Le Pen became president of France, given her “firm stance” against Hamas, the International Criminal Court and anti-Semitism.
However, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has issued a warning about the far right.
“They love Putin, money and uncontrolled power. And they are already in power or trying to get it in Eastern or Western Europe,” he wrote in an online post.
“They are uniting in the European Parliament. In Poland we have managed to reverse this fatal tide at the last moment. Let us not waste it,” he added.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his cabinet appeared to be respecting an unofficial ban on commenting on foreign elections.
But Michael Roth, a member of Scholz's Social Democratic party, said the party is guilty of not better supporting the pro-European liberal president in France.
“We do not show enough consideration towards the political debates and problems of other countries,” he added, noting that the alternative to Macron “in fact is no longer [former French President Nicolas] Sarkozy but rather a far-right nationalist like Marine Le Pen.”
Spain's Socialist leader, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, said he saw a warning in the far-right victory in France.
“The advance of the far right in France is not unrelated to what is happening in other parts of the world – including Spain – where we are seeing how, directly or indirectly… the far right is advancing institutionally and in opinion polls,” he said in an interview with radio station Cadena Ser.
Meanwhile, French and European markets reacted favorably to Monday's election result.
French stocks and the euro rose, with the CAC 40 index, which represents 40 of the largest companies listed in Paris, up 2.7 percent at the open before cooling slightly.
The euro, which had been hit by Macron's surprise announcement following the European Parliament elections in early June, hit its highest level against the US dollar in more than two weeks.
European stocks also traded higher, with the European STOXX 600 index recovering from last week's losses, partly helped by momentum from the CAC 40 index.
