Now, exit polls from the first round of France's parliamentary elections suggests the far right have made historic gains. Turnout was the highest for 40 years. Marine Le Pen's far-right National Party came top with more than a third of the vote, followed by a surge in support for the left-wing coalition with around 28% of the poll. President Macron's gamble to hold the Snap election saw his centre-right alliance of parties relegated to third place. A final result will be known for another week with a second round of voting for the National Assembly's 577 seats next Sunday. Andrew Harding has the latest from Paris.

. A kiss for Marine Le Pen this morning. A politician once considered too extreme for most French voters, today, her national rally is on a roll. And with Le Pen, her 28-year-old protégé, Jordan Baradela, who's hoping to be France's the next Prime Minister. Results show their party, on the left, has won over a third of all votes cast. A stunning result for an anti-immigrant, Euro-skeptic populist platform. A political earthquake in the making, perhaps. This evening, Le Pen told the country it had no reason to fear a government led by the national rally. But this fight is not over yet. President Emmanuel Macron took a huge gamble by calling the election. Smile, says the child, and he does. The French President is now hoping a broad alliance of the Center and Left, can keep the national rally out of power in a second round of voting. But there's no guarantee that will work. In Paris today, preparations for the upcoming Olympic Games. But France's political polarization is causing alarm.

I think it's concerning that we have people in our country who vote at extremes. It used to be more of a small part of the population, but we can see today that it's a lot of the population who votes either far right or either far left.

Left wing protesters gathering tonight in central Paris, some calling the hard-right fascists. There is anxiety here, and a huge amount at stake for France, and indeed for all of Europe.

What's clear tonight, Clive, is that the National Rally has completed a sensational journey from the extreme fringes of French politics right into the mainstream. It is the dominant political force here now. What's less clear is whether they can turn that into real power. In other words, can they take over the government? We'll find out that next weekend. Certainly in the next few days, we're going to see huge efforts by the center and the left to agree on one candidate to oppose the far right, or as they see it, far right, in all of the key constituencies to deny Marine Le Pen's party real power in government.