There is nothing inevitable about the rise of the far right, which French voters again overwhelming rejected on July 7. Last night, the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) alliance pulled off a historic upset in France’s snap parliamentary elections, emerging in Sunday’s runoff vote as the largest bloc in the incoming National Assembly.

An alliance of parties hastily put together less than one month ago, the NFP dashed expectations of an imminent victory for Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National. After dissolving the National Assembly on June 9, President Emmanuel Macron could now be forced into a governing “cohabitation” with an opposition cabinet. Leaders of the NFP — which brings together France Insoumise, the Parti Socialiste, Les Écologistes and the Parti Communiste Français — are demanding the right to form the next government and apply their common program for “rupture” with the Macron era. Unveiled in mid-June, the NFP’s platform includes a repeal of Macron’s widely unpopular 2023 retirement reform, wealth redistribution, investment in public services, and the recognition of Palestinian statehood.

“Our people clearly averted the worst-case scenario. Tonight the Rassemblement National is far from having the absolute majority that pundits predicted barely a week ago,” said a jubilant Jean-Luc Mélenchon, minutes after the release of the first exit polls at 8 p.m. “The lessons of this election are unmistakable: the defeat of the president of the republic and his coalition is clearly confirmed,” the founder of France Insoumise, the largest party in the NFP, continued. “The president must bow down and admit defeat without trying to skirt around it in any way.”