How French far right went from cusp of power to stinging defeat

The far-right National Rally (RN) has suffered a stinging defeat in the run-off round of France's parliamentary elections, hobbled by electoral pacts between the left and President Emmanuel Macron's centrists. Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella's RN led the first round of voting in the election on June 30 but fell back to third in Sunday's second round after the victorious left-wing New Popular Front (NPF) alliance and Macron's second-placed centrists joined forces to avoid splitting the anti-RN vote.