News And Current Events

France's radical left-wing coalition has vowed to bring in a 90 per cent tax rate on the rich following their shock election triumph on Sunday.

In a result that caught political commentators by surprise, the New Popular Front (NPF) emerged as the biggest party in the second round of the elections which ended in a deadlock, gaining 182 seats ahead of President Emmanuel Macron's centrist Ensemble party, on 168.

Marine Le Pen's populist right National Rally (RN), which won the first round of elections on June 30, performed poorly in the second round and only obtained 143 seats.

The NPF appears to be heading for a power struggle with President Macron - as he wants to be free to pick the next Prime Minister himself - against the backdrop of tensions and uncertainty in a country with a long history of political violence.

The NPF - a coalition put together just before the elections which include the socialists, the ecologists, the communists and the radical France Unbowed party - have not designated a candidate for French Prime Minister and the group's leaders met on Monday to try and agree upon who would be put forward for the job.

Manuel Bompard, coordinator of France Unbowed, said: 'We are preparing to govern, to apply the programme which is ours.'

The programme includes a 90 per cent tax rate on any annual income above €400,000, a reduction in the retirement age from 64 to 60, a block on the price of essential goods, a 14 per cent increase in minimum wage and spending commitments of at least €150 billion over three years.