French President Emmanuel Macron said in an address to the nation on Wednesday evening that Europe should be prepared to defend itself and Ukraine without the help of the United States, a demand long made by President Donald Trump.

President Macron said France and the rest of Europe cannot “remain spectators” to the war in Ukraine and must seek drastic rearmament to be able to protect the continent without America. The French leader said that he “wants to believe that the United States will stay by our side” but added, “we have to be ready if that is not the case”.

French President Emmanuel Macron has said a truce between Ukraine and Russia could be agreed in the coming weeks.

He was speaking to Fox News in Washington following talks with Donald Trump at the White House on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion.

The US president, who suggested the war could end "within weeks", insisted Europe should shoulder the cost and burden of any peacekeeping...

In a surprise triumph over the populist National Rally, France’s left-wing political alliance came first in Sunday’s final round of parliamentary elections. The New Popular Front coalition of leftists won 182 seats, President Emmanuel Macron’s party won 168 seats, and the National Rally and its allies won 143 seats.

French President Emmanuel Macron refused the resignation of the country’s prime minister, asking him on Monday to remain temporarily as the head of the government after chaotic election results left the government in limbo.

French voters split the legislature on the left, center and far right, leaving no faction even close to the majority needed to form a government. The results from Sunday’s vote raised the risk of paralysis for the European Union’s second-largest economy.

A left-wing alliance has won the most seats in the French parliament after tactical voting in Sunday’s second round election thwarted Marine Le Pen’s far-right party, but France will be left in political limbo after no party came close to winning an absolute majority.

Nobody expected this. High drama, for sure, but this was a shock.

When the graphics flashed up on all the big French channels, it was not the far right of Marine Le Pen and her young prime minister-in-waiting Jordan Bardella who were on course for victory.

It was the left who had clinched it, and Emmanuel Macron's centrists - the Ensemble alliance - had staged an unexpected comeback, pushing the far-right National Rally (RN) into third.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the veteran left-wing firebrand seen by his critics as an extremist, wasted no time in proclaiming victory.

French prime minister Gabriel Attal announced his intention to resign after the country’s legislative elections gave a first-place plurality to the left-wing New Popular Front coalition in the second round of voting on Sunday.

“Faithful to the Republican tradition and in accordance with my principles, tomorrow morning I will submit my resignation to the president of the Republic,” said Attal, a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron and a political centrist.

French prime minister Gabriel Attal announced his intention to resign after the country’s legislative elections gave a first-place plurality to the left-wing New Popular Front coalition in the second round of voting on Sunday.

“Faithful to the Republican tradition and in accordance with my principles, tomorrow morning I will submit my resignation to the president of the Republic,” said Attal, a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron and a political centrist.

The last time Emmanuel Macron was spotted in public, he was sporting a dark aviator’s jacket, Top Gun sunglasses and a black baseball cap.

His incognito rock star look, as he voted in the coastal town of Le Touquet Sunday, attracted plenty of attention on social media and rolling news channels.

But despite that moment of swagger, the truth is that Macron has taken a step back from public view lately. Apart from planned international commitments, he hasn’t been seen out and about for almost two weeks.

The collapse of support for French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance in legislative elections Sunday has ignited hope among the French left that it can recast itself as the primary competition to the rising far right in the country.

An alliance of leftist parties, the New Popular Front, came in second in the election, garnering 28 percent, behind the far-right National Rally, which won 33 percent. Macron’s centrist alliance secured only 21 percent, and is projected to lose more than half of its Assembly seats.