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We're wrapping up our coverage for the day.

As he established France's Fifth Republic, Charles de Gaulle confided to a friend: "I am trying to give France the appearance of a solid, firm, confident and expanding country, while it is a worn-out nation. . . . The whole thing is a perpetual illusion."

In the wake of the latest elections, those words have rarely rung so true. That illusion continues to this day, writes our international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn.

In Paris, the show is about to begin: preparations for the Olympics are almost complete, huge stands going up on its boulevards and the banks of the Seine. 

This is a city about to host the 30th summer Olympiad, exactly a hundred years since it last did so.  

The French will use the event to celebrate their contribution to civilisation - the way they believe they have led the world in culture and freedom-loving politics since the Enlightenment.

Behind that impressive Olympic veneer, however, the country is being torn apart by deepening polarisation and political crisis.  

De Gaulle's Fifth Republic has rarely been so severely tested. 

France has seldom seemed so worn out politically, whatever the multi-million euro illusion being conjured in the City of Light. 

Disenchantment with the status quo is strengthening the forces of extremism. 

The country's president believed the antidote would be a snap election. The outcome appears to be yet more chaos and division.  

Yes, a much-feared far-right takeover has been averted, but the parliament is now divided between three main factions which all loathe each other. Working together for the good of the nation seems a distant prospect.

In his presidential palace, yards from the Olympic stands going up on the Champs Elysee, Emmanuel Macron plots his next move.

Opinions differ on his wisdom in calling the elections.

Rym Momtaz, an analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, says he has strengthened neither himself nor French diplomacy. 

"Emmanuel Macron emerges from the snap elections weakened and kind of isolated, so he's looking at parties that are now stronger than him in parliament that are very opposed to his own policies and whose priorities are actually to take apart his legacy," she said.

It's all a far cry from the French president's triumphant rise to power seven years ago. Then, he promised a break from the left-right battles of French politics. But they are back with a vengeance and threatening to consume his presidency

Becoming leader at the same time as Donald Trump in America, Mr Macron was hailed as a saviour of western democracy, but is now being blamed by many for crippling it in France.

Others, though, say the crisis should not be overstated. 

Plus ca change, they argue.

France is used to having a chaotic parliament and a haughty president, ruling by decree. After all, Mr Macron has been a lame duck president since losing his majority in parliament two years ago. 

He has been able to rule, despite that predicament, because of the omnipotence General De Gaulle and the Fifth Republic endowed upon the presidency. 

"The whole idea of the constitution," Paris-based British journalist Peter Allen told Sky News, "is that you have this almost kinglike figure - they call it an elected monarch who can pretty much do what he likes and rule by decree."

Mr Macron has done so for two years and could continue, he says, until his term ends in 2027.

"So with all this division you have this one man who's the president, with enormous powers. He is fit to govern and he will carry on governing - so that's what I think we're looking at over the next three years."

Outside the Elysee Palace, the statue of Charles De Gaulle looks on. The Fifth Republic he founded was a response to the chaos and petty squabbling of the Fourth. France, he believed, was so fractious it was ungovernable without a powerful president. 

Decades on, the intense divisions and fractures, shown up by this election, only reinforce that impression. But at what price does the president they call Jupiter rule without any deference to the will of the people, expressed through parliament and these elections? 

Will his aloofness only strengthen the far right and its supporters? 

They will be waiting, along with extremists on the left, gathering more strength, believing their moment is yet to come and he is only helping them.

France could be facing a "year of gridlock and paralysis", French political commentator Agnes Poirier has told Sky News.

Following yesterday's run-off election there are now three blocs in the National Assembly of "more or less equal force", she said.

It is a situation the "Fifth Republic, since 1958, has never known", she added.

"We're not the Germans, we're not the Spanish, we're not the Italians - we don't do coalitions.

"But this time we'll have to, because otherwise we're facing a year of gridlock and paralysis."

The constitution says the French president cannot dissolve parliament for another 12 months, Ms Poirier explained.

A further difficulty is that the New Popular Front leftist coalition is "extremely divided", she said.

That is because the social democrats "do not agree on almost every subject with the hard left of Jean-Luc Melenchon".

Mr Macron's centrist Ensemble coalition is also heavily divided, she said, and is "made up of many different movements and groups".

Ms Poirier added: "The only really united bloc in the national assembly is Marine Le Pen's National Rally."

It is rare for a prime minister to resign, and even rarer for the resignation to be turned down, writes our Europe correspondent Adam Parsons.

Whatever his misgivings about doing the job, Gabriel Attal will have to continue after his boss, French President Emmanuel Macron, refused to accept his decision. 

Why? Mr Macron needs some sense of stability at the top of French politics, especially with the Olympics around the corner. 

And, in the absence of a deal with his opponents, who else would do the job now, as the lamest of lame ducks?

Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader of La France Insoumise (France Unbowed), would like to be prime minister, but is incredibly unlikely to get the support of other left-wing parties, let alone Mr Macron, who can't stand him. 

But the president will have to strike some kind of alliance, and that will almost certainly mean a prime minister drawn from the ranks of the socialists. 

It could herald a remarkable comeback for Francois Hollande, the former president, but I'm told that Francois Ruffin and Raphael Glucksmann, younger party stalwarts, may be more popular options. 

An outsider, though, is the leader of the Greens, Marine Tondelier - considered an astute and engaging operator.

While coalition governments are not uncommon in Europe - in Germany and the Netherlands, for example - they are unusual in France.

Its Fifth Republic was designed in 1958 by war hero Charles de Gaulle to give large, stable parliamentary majorities.

That has led to a confrontational political culture with no tradition of consensus or compromises.

No figure has emerged as a possible future prime minister after Sunday's second round of voting failed to produce a clear winner.

There are now three major blocs - the New Popular Front leftist coalition, President Emmanuel Macron's centrist Ensemble coalition, and the far-right National Rally party.

None of them is close to holding a majority of at least 289 seats out of 577.

Mr Macron can propose a candidate for prime minister, but his choice would need to be backed by a parliamentary majority.

In seeking to break the deadlock, he may propose a deal with moderate elements of the Left, but has said he will not work with the France Unbowed party.

It is thought, however, that he could try to seek agreements with other parties in the New Popular Front: the socialists and the greens.

Last week, his government suspended a decree that would have diminished workers' rights to unemployment benefits - which has been interpreted as a gesture towards the left.

A left-wing alliance in France has won the most seats in a dramatic election, dealing a surprise blow to the far-right party of Marine Le Pen. 

Ms Le Pen's National Rally had been hoping to become the biggest party in parliament but was stopped by tactical voting and collaboration between its opponents.

In this episode of the Sky News Daily podcast, Niall Paterson talks to Europe correspondent Adam Parsons about the shock result.

He also speaks to Philippe Marliere, professor of French and European politics at University College London, about left-wing politician Jean-Luc Melenchon and whether he could be the new French prime minister.  

Manfred Weber, leader of the centre-right European People's Party, has accused French President Emmanuel Macron of "strengthening the extremes".

The German politician said that "far from clarifying the political situation", Mr Macron's snap election had "plunged France into confusion".

He said he was "very worried" about the far left and far right, and about anti-EU rhetoric.

"We need a strong democratic force giving a real alternative to put France back on its feet," Mr Weber said.

Jordan Bardella, the president of National Rally (RN), has said he accepts a "share of responsibility" after his far-right party came third in yesterday's second round of voting.

RN was behind two coalitions - one left wing, the other centrist.

"We always make mistakes - I did," Mr Bardella was quoted by French newspaper Le Monde as saying.

"I take my share of responsibility both for the victory in the European elections and for yesterday's defeat."

Gerald Darmanin, France's interior minister, has said there is "no question" of "governing or supporting a coalition" which has links either to the hard left France Unbowed or hard right National Rally.

He added, speaking to a TV channel, that no one won the elections and a "little humility would do all the French people good".

Left wing coalition the New Popular Front, which includes France Unbowed, won the most seats in yesterday's second round of voting.

Marine Le Pen's National Rally came third.

Jordan Bardella, National Rally's president, is to lead a group in the European Parliament called Patriots for Europe.

As we said in the previous post, the group was formed at the end of last month by Austria's far-right Freedom Party, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz, and the populist Czech ANO party.

Zoltan Kovacs, Hungary's international spokesman, said on X that Mr Bardella will chair Patriots for Europe.

Kinga Gal, a Hungarian MEP and member of Fidesz, will be vice chair, Mr Kovacs wrote above a picture of the group's members.

It has 84 representatives from 12 countries, he added, commenting: "Our alliance of European patriots will fight for the future and sovereignty of the European people!"