Macron wins big majority in parliament
PRESIDENT Emmanuel Macron was poised to forge ahead with his pro-EU, pro-business reforms yesterday after his centrist party redrew France’s political map with a resounding victory in parliamentary elections.
Although it fell short of a predicted landslide, Macron’s Republic on the Move (REM) and its allies won 350 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly on Sunday.
The election was being closely watched in Europe and around the world to see whether France’s youngest leader yet would secure a mandate to push through his pro-EU reform agenda.
The new body will be nearly six years younger on average, have a record 223 women legislators, and will be strikingly less politically experienced.
The trailblazing party that 39-year-old Macron founded just 14 months ago has caused a political earthquake, even if the winning score was considerably lower than the 470 seats predicted by some pre-vote surveys.
“A profoundly renewed political generation takes over the reins of legislative power,” Alexis Brezet wrote in the right-leaning daily Le Figaro.
Macron’s confident start at home, where he has concentrated on trying to restore the lost prestige of the president, and his bold action on the international stage has inspired positive headlines.
Macron wants to use his majority in parliament to pursue his agenda of loosening labour laws and overhauling France’s social security system.
He has already had little pushback on his stated intention to use executive orders to push through reforms without parliamentary debate -- though street protests over the erosion of cherished workers’ rights are considered likely.