Members of French far-left wing party France Unbowed refused to shake hands with a far-right National Rally party MP during a parliamentary session.

French tradition dictates the first session of the newly-elected parliament is to be chaired by its oldest MP, while the youngest-elected member acts as their secretary.

Flavien Termet, 22, elected earlier this month as the National Rally MP for Ardennes’s 1st constituency, stood by the voting urn in the French National Assembly shaking hands with fellow politicians after they cast their ballot.

But several member of the party led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon swerved away from Mr Termet’s hand.

One, Francois Piquemal, openly mocked the young MP as he engaged in a game of rock-paper-scissors rather than take the extended hand of Mr Termet.

Mr Piquemal, whose party entered a broad left-wing alliance called New Popular Front (NFP) ahead of the snap elections held in two turns between late June and early July, took to X to mark his move.

Alongside a clip showing his act, he wrote: “In the ballot boxes as in rock-paper-scissors, in the end it is the NFP which wins.”

The move drew criticism upon the leftist MP, with many X users commenting the clip negatively. One wrote: “Are you proud of yourself?”

Another posted: “Your gesture is pitiful”. Similarly, a third X user added: “Confusing the National Assembly with a playground”.

Others, however, appreciated Mr Piquemal’s move, with one social media user posting: “Relations with the far-right must never be normal. This is how it’s done.”

Marine Le Pen‘s National Rally appeared to be on track to win the most votes following the first turn of the latest French parliamentary election, but the party’s rise was blocked by a deal struck by the NFP coalition, which includes several parties on the left side of the political spectrum including France Unbowed and the Greens, and Emmanuel Macron‘s centrist force.