I'm only peripherally interested in French politics because if my wife, she follows it pretty closely. She listens to a French classical music station that has news every day.
The French President has a lot more authority than ours, mostly due to DeGaulle. He can appoint, or not appoint, the prime minister as he wishes. It's an odd situation. I expect street protests soon, they happen often anyway.
Speculation is that Macron expected the right to win the snap election but they came in third. The left got the most votes, but not a majority. He wanted to dinimish the right by giving them power and then noting they didn't get much done, according to one notion. Then in the election for President in 2027, his party would have that as a position on which to run.
Le Pen's party is often called "far right", but interestingly, she's a socialist on economic issues. She would be far left in the US, but for her parties stance on immigration and the EU.