Macron gets dealt a setback in Senate vote

FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron’s new centrist political party suffered its first electoral setback in Senate elections on Sunday in which the right-wing Republicans party strengthened its dominance in the upper chamber of parliament.

Results from the vote to renew 171 of 348 seats left the French president’s Republic on the Move party (LREM) with a group of only 28 senators.

The outcome, which is not expected to significantly impact Macron’s ability to push through his economic reform agenda, came after months of falling approval ratings for the 39-yearold head of state.

But after a week in which he signed into law one of his signature economic reforms – an overhaul of rigid French labour laws – a new survey on Sunday brought positive news. A poll in the Journal du Dimanche showed 45 percent of respondents approved of his presidency, up from 40 percent last month.

French senators are elected by 76,000 local and national lawmakers, not the general public, which put LREM at a disadvantage because the party was only formed in April 2016 and is not implanted nationwide.

But Macron’s top team had once hoped to increase their presence in the upper house from the 29 seats they controlled, comprising lawmakers who had switched over to the party.

“We would have liked to do better,” the head of LREM’s group in the Senate, Francois Patriat, admitted.

The upper house has the power to delay government bills, but in case of a deadlock the final say goes to the LREM-dominated National Assembly.