Marine Le Pen's far-right party National Rally suffered a major disappointment in the French parliamentary elections on Sunday evening, as it received considerably fewer seats at the National Assembly than polls predicted.
Contrary to the polls, the National Rally party garnered only 120 to 150 seats in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament. In contrast, the left-wing alliance "New Popular Front," which includes far-left parties, is expected according to the exit polls to become the largest faction in parliament, with 215-180 seats.
Following the results of the elections, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced his intention to hand his resignation to President Emmanuel Macron on Monday morning, adding he would carry out his functions as long as required.
Simultaneously, far-left leader in France Melenchon announced, "A left-wing government will recognize the State of Palestine as soon as possible."
French election dynamics
Friends of the Netanya Academic College Association Chairman Claude Brightman told Maariv, "As far as we are concerned, this is terrible. They do not hide it; they are Palestinians and the fact that there is a connection to the Islamic community and Macron’s [alleged intention] that part of the left and the center would be together."
"They swallowed frogs and compromised,” stated Brightman concerning the difference between pre-election polls and election results. “Something opposite happened; there is a basis for change, but the dynamics of the elections and the unification of support for the left and the center thwarted the right."
When asked what guided the French in their voting, Brightman asserted, "A major struggle over the retirement age and maintaining a certain type of populism that appealed to the public. The feeling of insecurity due to terrorist attacks also had an impact. There was, and is, a real fear of terrorism, and on the other hand, the Palestinian issue also played a role."
Reuters contributed to this article.