French voters propel far-right party into strong lead after first round of elections

French are heading to the polls today in record numbers for elections, already spelling out bad news for President Mccrone. Let's bring in nines Europe correspondent Brett McLeod. Brett, good morning. The early exit polls are in. This was predicted. It's not looking good for him, is it? No, Emiliano, good morning. And yes, Emmanuel Macron had this snap election years before he needed to in a bid to stem the rise of the far right in France. And in the first round, it's failed. The far right party run by a Marine Le Pen is actually topped the exit polls, getting in 34% of the vote. Then the New Popular Front, which is a block of left wing parties, 28% and Manneric Ones Alliance, 20% of the ballot. It was a huge turn out, one of the biggest in decades. Macron wanted to try to stop the pain from being the most influential person in parliament after him, but it looks like she will have that title, at least at this stage. Marine Le Pen has been assisted by a man named Jordan Bardella, who's the 28 year old president of the National Rally. Very charismatic man, appealing to a lot of younger voters, both him and the party it seems, which says a lot about where France is at the moment. But it's only the first stage because only certain candidates go through to the next round, which will be in a week's time. So it's unclear yet which way this will shape up. But it's possible that by the time of the Olympics, President Macron could have a Prime Minister who's totally hostile politically to him.