France held the first of two rounds of parliamentary elections on Sunday, and its “far right” party won big. I put that in quotes because right-wing parties in Europe can differ from the American far right – the immigrant-scapegoating ethnonationalism is just as ugly, but the economic policies are less hypocritical. I’ll get to that shortly.

Before I go there, however, what are the implications of the strong showing by the National Rally (or RN, for Rassemblement National) party? As I understand it, it’s still unclear whether the RN will gain a majority of seats and if it will be able to form a government, and in general very unclear how France will function given the diminishment of Emmanuel Macron, who will still be president.