FRANCE'S far-right party could be on the brink of power after winning the first round of a snap parliamentary election.
Hundreds of left-wing protesters flooded the streets and clashed with cops in Paris as they set off fireworks and flares.
Incumbent president Emmanuel Macron's party and their allies have been left dragging behind in the polls as Marine Le Pen's National Rally scooped the first round of legislative elections on Sunday.
Le Pen crowed that Macron's alliance was "almost wiped out" during the first of two rounds.
Her party reached 33 per cent of the vote, while the left-wing New Popular Front came in second with 28 per cent.
Macron's centrist bloc trailed behind with just 20 per cent, the interior ministry said.
France's incumbent Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said the far right sit at the "gates of power".
He then called on voters to mobilise against them in the second round of voting on July 7.
The National Rally is aiming for an absolute majority - but the next round could lead to a hung parliament.
Worried French leaders will be hoping for the formation of the so-called "Republican Front" to block the National Rally.
But polling has raised questions if discontented voters will be willing to mobilise against them.
Macron took a gamble in calling the snap election last month - which appears to have backfired.
And he called on the French public to rally round "clearly republican and democratic" candidates.
Yesterday's results led to a deluge of demonstrators taking to the streets of Paris, which will host the Olympics in just a few weeks.
Dozens of protesters also scaled the Place de la Republique as police and firefighters attempted to quell tensions.
Dramatic pictures show fires raging and shop windows smashed.
Cops unleashed tear gas while firefighters tried to put out blazes.
The protests were in response to Le Pen's first-round victory.
France has not been under far-right leadership since World War Two when Philippe Pétain and his prime minister Pierre Laval headed the Vichy regime that collaborated with the Nazis.
At least 289 are needed for an absolute majority in the National Assembly, France's lower house of parliament.
Le Pen addressed cheering supporters in her northern constituency of Henin-Beaumont.
She said: "Democracy has spoken and the French have put the RN and its allies at the top, practically wiping out the Macron camp."
Le Pen added that people clearly want to "turn the page after seven years of scornful and corrosive rule" and asked people to vote for the RN again next Sunday in the second round.
"We need an absolute majority so that [RN President] Jordan Bardella can be appointed prime minister in a week's time," she continued.
However, opposition parties are prioritising blocking the prospect of the far-right taking power.
Less than an hour after polls closed this evening, attentions turned to the second round of voting on July 7.
While the second round often involves two candidates facing off, because of high voter-turnout, dozens of three-way races are expected for certain seats.
Some leaders are considering pulling out their people entirely from those seats so as to give their allies more of the vote and keep - for example - an RN candidate from winning.
Jean-Luc Melenchon, who heads the hard-left France Unbowed party, has just said: "Nowhere will we allow the [far-right] National Rally to win."
Macron had called the vote, hoping NR's triumph in the European election three weeks ago would prove to be a flash in the pan.
But with Le Pen and Bardella potentially having increased their share of the vote again, the President is among leaders calling for tactical voting to stop them.
THE French public choose their president and MPs in separate elections - unlike in the UK where the country's leader, the PM, is determined by which party has a majority in parliament.
There are 577 seats - and constituencies - in France's National Assembly.
For an absolute majority in government a party would need 289 seats.
France's parliamentary elections are made up of two rounds, with the first kicking out anyone who fails to win 12.5% of votes in their area.
If any candidates get more than 50% of the vote in their area, and at least a quarter of the local voter pool turns out to cast their ballot, they win a seat automatically.
This doesn't happen very often, but RN thinks this time it could happen in dozens of seats.
The second round, for any seats which candidates do not win outright, is then a series of knock-outs fought either by two, three or sometimes four candidates.
Some candidates may drop out before the second round on July 7 to give their allies a better chance over another candidate in a three or four-way race.
French leaders are urging candidates and voters to act tactically to stop the far-right surge.
But polling shows voters may be unwilling to vote tactically and to form the so-called "Republican Front" - a united movement to block for the National Rally.
A poll by Odoxa found that only 41 per cent of voters were willing to vote to block the RN - while some 47 per cent would vote to stop NFP or some 44 per cent to stop Together.
The second round, next Sunday, will be the "most consequential" since the Fifth Republic was established in 1958, said Bardella.
In an address to the nation from the Elysee presidential palace, Macron said on announcing the election: “I’ve decided to give you back the choice of our parliamentary future through the vote.
"I am therefore dissolving the National Assembly.
"This decision is serious, heavy. But it is above all an act of confidence."
