Marine Le Pen’s far-right party has battered President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance in the first round of snap French parliamentary elections, moving the country closer to a potential nationalist government that would jolt the European project.

After unusually high turnout, the Rassemblement National (RN) party won 33.2 per cent of the vote, while the leftwing Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) alliance came second with 28.1 per cent, according to projections by the pollster Ipsos at about 10pm local time. Macron’s Ensemble alliance secured 21 per cent of the vote.

The projections suggest the RN and its allies are on track to win the most seats in the National Assembly and potentially even an outright majority in the final round of voting on July 7.