The head of the French Socialist party said Sunday that the left faced "unprecedented" losses in the country's parliamentary elections which could see it lose more than 200 seats.
The results were "marked by an unprecedented retreat of the left as a whole and the PS (Socialist Party) in particular," Jean-Christophe Cambadelis said in comments after the first projections were published.
Projections showed the party falling to 15-40 seats from 277 in the outgoing parliament.