France is facing "days if not weeks" of political negotiations after shock exit polling indicated the country is set for a hung parliament, a former diplomat has claimed.
Following the second round of election voting, a surprise left-wing surge blocked Marine Le Pen's quest to bring the hard-right to power.
Le Pen's National Rally had been previously tipped to win the election, but left-wing alliance New Popular Front has been projected to secure victory instead.
Speaking to GB News, former French Diplomat Francois-Joseph Schichan said the country is facing "big uncertainty" in the election, and unlike the UK's General Election last week, the outcome for France is "anything but decisive".
France is set for 'weeks of negotiation' as the country is facing a hung parliament
PA / GB News / Reuters
Schichan explained: "This is a situation of of big uncertainty. The UK had a decisive election, but last night the result in France was anything but decisive.
"We have a divided parliament with three main blocks of far right, the centre and the far left. And it's going to be very, very difficult to put the government together on that basis. So we are in for days, if not weeks of negotiations."
When asked if President Emmanuel Macron has "any mandate left" following the result, Schichan said the shock outcome is a "big defeat" for the current leader.
Schichan told GB News: "This is still a big, big defeat for the president. He made this gamble by calling an election, and this gamble backfired spectacularly in the first round of the election.
Riots have erupted in France following the exit poll results
Reuters
"His party before the election had around 250 seats, and he's left with around 120 seats. Let's see what the final results say, but the president is very much weakened."
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Questioned on whether he believes Macron will be forced to resign as a result of the election, Schichan said that Macron may actually be the "influence" in "brokering the discussion" between the political parties.
He claimed: "The fact that the Parliament is very divided puts him a little bit back into the game - the president has to decide who will be appointed Prime Minister.
"And in a situation where the parliament is divided, that means he's going to have a role in brokering the discussion between the various political parties, and that is going to give him a little bit of influence."
Noting that Macron has "another three years" before the Presidential election in France, Schichan said the leader is becoming a "lame duck pretty quickly" and will find it "hard to recover politically from this".
Francois-Joseph Schichan said France is facing 'big uncertainty' over who will lead the country
GB News
Turning the discussion to right-wing leader Marine Le Pen, Schichan stated that although the result for National Rally is "not as good as they wanted it to be", they are still making "dramatic progress" in the French political sphere.
Schichan explained: "Three years ago, there were a handful of of MPs from Marine Le Pen's party in parliament. In 2022, there were 89, and now there will be around 140.
"It's dramatic progress. The final results for Marine Le Pen are not going to be as good as they wanted it to be, but again, this progress is quite impressive.
"And they are still the first biggest political party in the French parliament at the moment."
