How did France get to this point?

After a shellacking for his centrist Ensemble (“Together”) Movement in the June 2024 European Parliament elections, French President Emmanuel Macron decided to call snap legislative elections to try to stabilize the domestic political situation. But Macron’s gamble that French citizens would reward him with a new majority and fresh mandate backfired, and he ended up with a “hung” National Assembly divided between three roughly equal and politically incompatible factions.