The second round of France's parliamentary elections look set to deliver a very surprising result, with Marine Le Pen's far-right party forecast to come third in a poll in which they were expected to come top. This was an election in which her political opponents cooperated with each other in the hope of keeping her party from power. According to projections by French broadcaster France 2, the left wing new Popular Front, seen here in red, appears to have the most votes. President Macron's ensemble shown in purple is in second place, and Marine Le Pen's anti-immigration National Rally in navy blue has been pushed into third after it won the most votes in the first round last weekend. But none of these groups is on course for an absolute majority. Our first report is from our Europe editor, Katya Adler, who is at National Rally's headquarters.

It's In a shock result for all and a huge relief for many here, the left-far-left coalition has unexpectedly become the biggest party in the French Parliament, beating the far-right.

The vote is final. The defeat of the President and his coalition has been clearly confirmed.

Equally stunned by tonight's results, Marine Le Pen's National Rally Party. So sure victory would be theirs, except it wasn't. At an absolute loss for words, it seems this has been a huge slap in the face for Marine Le Pen's party. All the polls before this election have predicted they at least would become the largest party in the French Parliament. They said they were poised to govern, but the French people today said a resounding non. Confusingly, their star shone so brightly in the first round of this election.

Unfortunately, an alliance of this honor and a dangerous The electoral arrangement set up by this government with the far left coalition has deprived the French people of a political recovery.

Emmanuel Macron's gamble, calling this Snap election, paid off. Or did it? No party has a majority to govern in France now. And President Macron's Prime Minister has just announced his resignation. Just ahead of hosting the Olympic Games, with all eyes on France, this EU and military power, key ally of Ukraine, has plunged into political limbo. And when France is unstable and distracted, the impact can reverberate outside the country, too. Katya Adler, BBC News, Paris.

While the National Rally campaigned on a strong anti-immigration platform, and clearly many French voters rejected that tonight, but the issue of large-scale immigration remains a deeply polarizing one, not least on the Mediterranean Coast West, and in the famous Port City of Marseille, from where our correspondent, Andrew Harding, begins his report.

In the Port City of Marseille, the immigration debate has dominated these elections. This has always been a diverse place, and Nigerian bar owner, Prince Irograma, sees that as a strength. Because we have a family here, we have our children, we are trying to make the society to be better, we want the children to live. But the rise of France's National Rally, with its fiercely anti-immigrant platform, is alarming many communities here. The party is trying to divide French people, says Jonathan Kwame. That could be very dangerous. Incidents like this, rioting last year in Marseille, have been seized on by the National Rally and by right-wing media. They've linked the violence to what they call uncontrolled immigration. The same goes for the city's undeniant reliable problem of drug trafficking and gang violence. Pensioner Frank Boshé worries about security here. Our country has changed too much. We need more selective immigration, he says.

They're dealing drugs just over there.

All the youths have knives. But that's not the full picture. In this poor neighborhood, communities are still finding ways to to integrate, to challenge the polarizing forces sweeping through France.

For me, France is a welcoming country, welcoming to everyone, a melting pot. It shouldn't matter where you come from.

Tonight, in cities across France, plenty of ethnically diverse communities are celebrating the election results. These people have gathered in a Paris suburb.

I am really I'm really relieved.

A huge sense of relief in this particular crowd tonight, but also the knowledge that the ever more divisive debate about immigration does not end here. This is our home, they sing. Andrew Harding, BBC News, France.

Let's go back to Katya Adler, who's at National Rally's headquarters. Katya, you described France as being in limbo. What happens next?

Well, it really is at sea, Rita, because no party or block in France's Parliament has enough seats to form a government. That leads us here to political gridlock as a potentially very painful period of coalition building begins. And whatever happens, Emmanuel Macron emerges a weaker President. When he first took office back in 2017, he promised to ban to finish the political extremes. But just look what happened tonight. Both the hard left and the hard right significantly increased their presence in France's Parliament. Yes, Marine Le Pen's party didn't win the majority that it dreamt of, but it almost doubled the number of seats it has. So all of this insecurity and instability, it's likely to impact not just on France at home, but outside the country as well, because of the outsize role that France plays on the European and the global stage. And tonight, that is of concern to France's international allies.

And Katia, what about the issues raised in Andrew Harding's report about people who have worries about immigration, who may feel that their voices have been shoved to one side because the other parties cooperated with each other and against the national rally? What happens to this issue?

Well, certainly here tonight, you You did have that feeling amongst supporters of Marine Le Pen's party. They said, the others, their opponents clubbed together against them. They smart at the fact that many in France see them as extremists and racist. They call themselves Conservatives and Nationalists. They say we're in a time of a cost of living crisis, and they think it makes sense to put France and the French first. So yes, they were really... They feel they have open wounds here tonight, but they were also trying to put a spin on it, because look at it, with each election, Marine Le Pen's National Rally Party seems to get stronger and stronger. It performed stunningly in the European election last month. It did shine, as I said, really brightly in the first round of this election. So the mood here tonight is we may not have won a majority tonight, but we're ready to govern, and we'll be in that place tomorrow.

Katia, thank you very much. Katia Adler reporting there. Well, Marine Le Pen's National Rally remains a polarizing force, and for all those people who are unhappy at tonight's result, there are many out on the streets of Paris tonight, celebrating, happy, and relieved at the outcome. It does look as if President Macron took a major gamble in calling these elections early, just as Rishi Sunak gambled in going to the country when he did. In France this evening, the wind does seem to have been taken out of the sails of the far-right, but they are still forecast to have many more members of Parliament, as Katia was saying, than before, and Mr Macron has lost his Prime Minister. France's political landscape tonight looks very volatile indeed.