Mr Macron’s centrist camp took just 20 per cent of the vote. RN could win an absolute majority in the second round, name a new prime minister and leave the president a lame duck.

Mr Beaune took 32.78 per cent of the vote, losing to New Popular Front candidate Emmanuel Grégoire, who was elected with 50.87 per cent. Mr Grégoire is a member of the centre-Left Socialist Party and the first deputy mayor of Paris. He is one of more than 60 candidates, including Ms Le Pen, who got more than 50 per cent of the vote in their constituencies and were elected automatically without needing to go to the run-off vote on July 7.

In the last National Assembly elections in 2022, Mr Beaune won the 7th constituency of Paris in the second round with 50.73 per cent of the vote. He beat Caroline Mécary, a Green politician, with 49.27 per cent.

Célia Belin, of the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank, said Mr Macron’s gamble had “backfired” and left him “weakened and isolated”.

“His centrist coalition lost six to eight percentage points compared to 2022, potentially retaining only a third of its previous seats his camp enjoyed only three weeks ago,” she said.

She added, “Macron’s decision to call snap elections amounted to self-sabotage, accelerating the rise of the far-Right in French politics by months or even years.”