French President Emmanuel Macron's "Republic Forward" party suffered a heavy defeat in Sunday's local elections.

The second round of the French municipal elections witnessed the largest boycott rate in the history of the Fifth Republic, and the initial results showed clear progress for the Green Party, which succeeded in grabbing several cities in alliance with the Socialists.

The results of a poll of voters after they cast their votes showed that the Green Party and their leftist allies won control of the cities of Lyon and Marseille, and they advanced in the race to control the Bordeaux City Council.

Prime Minister Edward Philippe won the presidency of the City of Le Havre after running independently, despite his affiliation with the Republic of Forward party, and this could lead to a government amendment although the French constitution allows Philip to appoint another person to act as mayor if he is the prime minister.

In Paris, which is the largest prize for all, a poll of voters showed that Socialist mayor Ann Idaljo retained her post, after a campaign of chaos by Camp Macron.

Partial results also showed the victory of the far-right Marine Le Pen party in Perpignan, making it the first time that the anti-European Union Party has controlled a city of more than 100,000 people.

The first round was held in mid-March, and recorded low levels of participation that did not give the Macron Party the lead, and forced it to ally with the right parties in several cities.

A year ago, Macron had hoped that local elections would help bolster his new party in the towns and cities of France, including the capital, Paris, before he sought to win a second term in the elections scheduled for 2022, but his aides recently played down expectations.

France held the first round of municipal elections in mid-March, less than 48 hours before Macron's general isolation measures, which were described as one of the most stringent in Europe, which led to a long delay in the second round.