Good morning from Paris, The leftist bloc Nouveau Front populaire (NFP) won an unexpected victory in the second round of France’s parliamentary elections on Sunday, beating the far-right Rassemblement national (RN) that came third behind Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party, which ranked second. The challenge is now to create a broad new alliance in a country that is not used to coalitions, unlike in the European Parliament which relies on the traditional pro-European alliance of the centre-right, liberals, and the centre-left. In addition, the loose coalition of left-wing parties could be short-lived. An idea of a broad government alliance between part of the left, the centre, and some right-wing MPs has been circulating lately, but compromises must be made to allow a cohabitation. However, the equation may be tricky to solve. Reporting from Paris Clara Bauer-Babef has the story. Meanwhile, EU progressive politicians hailed the result, saying the French voters showed how to halt Europe's rising far-right. On the Brussels front, the defeated far-right RN is set to join Viktor Orbán’s Patriots for Europe. An EU Parliament RN source told Euractiv’s Paul Messad that a meeting between newly elected RN MEPs and their colleagues in the far-right Identity and Democracy group is taking place in the afternoon in Brussels and will decide on the matter. | 
