Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) party led the first round of France’s parliamentary elections on Sunday, taking it closer to the gates of power than ever before.

After an unusually high turnout, the RN bloc clinched 33.15% of the vote, while the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) coalition came second with 27.99% and President Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble alliance slumped to a dismal third with 20.76%, according to final results published by the Interior Ministry on Monday.

France’s far right is in pole position after the first round of parliamentary elections that confirmed their dominance in French politics and brought them to the gates of power.

Supporters of Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration National Rally (RN) cheered as she said the president’s “Macronist bloc has been all but wiped out”.

RN won 33.1% of the vote, with a left-wing alliance behind on 28%, and the Macron camp behind on 20.76%.

“I aim to be prime minister for all the French people, if the French give us their votes,” said 28-year-old RN party leader Jordan Bardella.

France’s right-wing National Rally party on Sunday made considerable gains in the country’s first round of elections, putting the centrist President Emmanuel Macron and his supporters on edge. 

Early projections suggest that the National Rally, led by Marine Le Pen, stands a good chance of winning a majority in the lower house of parliament for the first time, with an estimated one-third of the first-round vote, nearly double their 18% in the first round in 2022.

France is heading to the polls on Sunday for the first round of snap legislative elections that President Emmanuel Macron unexpectedly called this month, a gamble that has thrust the country into deep uncertainty over its future.

Voters are choosing their 577 representatives in the National Assembly, the country’s lower and more prominent house of Parliament, which will determine the future of Mr. Macron’s second term.

Far-right parties rattled the traditional powers in the European Union with major gains in parliamentary seats, dealing an especially humiliating defeat to French President Emmanuel Macron, who called snap legislative elections.

The pro-European parties at the centre command a majority, despite voters veering to the right. But Ursula von der Leyen's path to re-election is fraught with difficulties.

Around 185 million voters across 27 EU countries have had their say, and right-wing parties have seen support creep up in all corners of the continent, tilting the balance of power in the European Parliament.

Germany's conservatives finished first in the European Union's elections, as far-right momentum within the bloc has sent France's leadership scrambling. 

The conservative alliance of the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union garnered 30.2% of the vote Sunday, Politico reported, citing a projection by German public television. 

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party came in second place, projected to receive 16% of the vote – a 5 percentage point club from the 2019 European Parliament election. 

On a recent phone call with President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron proposed sending Western forces into Ukraine to train troops in the war zone.

Biden was not supportive. The American president expressed concern about the potential consequences of sending troops from any NATO country into a place where they could wind up in the line of fire and lead to an escalation of the conflict, according to two people familiar with the conversation.

The call ended without any resolution.

And for Biden and Macron, that was okay.