Four Takeaways From France’s Snap Election

A new week of frenetic campaigning will start in France on Monday, a day after the far-right National Rally party dominated the first round of legislative elections that attracted an unusually high number of voters and dealt a stinging blow to President Emmanuel Macron.

Voters are being asked to choose their representatives in the 577-seat National Assembly, the country’s lower and more prominent house of Parliament. They will return to the polls on July 7 for the second round of voting.

If a new majority of lawmakers opposed to Mr. Macron is ushered in, he will be forced to appoint a political adversary as prime minister, dramatically shifting France’s domestic policy and muddling its foreign policy. That will be especially so if he is forced to govern alongside Jordan Bardella, the 28-year-old president of the National Rally.

If no clear majority emerges, the country could be headed for months of political deadlock or turmoil. Mr. Macron, who has ruled out resigning, cannot call new legislative elections for another year.

On Sunday, as projections from the first round of voting rolled in, the nationalist, anti-immigrant National Rally party was in the lead in nationwide legislative election for the first time in its history, with about 34 percent of the vote. The New Popular Front, a broad alliance of left-wing parties, got about 29 percent; Mr. Macron’s centrist Renaissance party and its allies won about 22 percent; and mainstream conservatives got only about 10 percent.

Here are four takeaways from the first round to help make sense of the elections so far.