Left-wing bloc springs surprise in French polls

Alliance secures most seats in second round but fails to win enough to govern

France is heading toward a hung parliament, with its new leftist alliance securing the most seats in the second round of national elections on Sunday but failing to win enough to comfortably govern.

According to final results published by France's Interior Ministry, the New Popular Front, or NFP, has 182 seats. President Emmanuel Macron's alliance has 168 seats. And the far-right National Rally, or RN, and its coalition has 143 seats. The conservative party Les Republicains, or LR, gained 46 seats. And other left, independent, and regionalist candidates took the remaining seats in the total of 577.

Macron had earlier dissolved Parliament and called the snap election after the far right trounced his centrist alliance in elections in June for the European Parliament.