Macron’s party dominates French parliamentary vote

PARIS — French voters gave President Emmanuel Macron’s upstart party a solid victory in Sunday’s parliamentary election, handing the centrist a strong mandate to reshape French politics and overhaul the country’s restrictive labor laws.

Polling agency projections suggested that Macron’s Republic on the Move party could take 355 to 365 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, the powerful lower house. That’s far more than the 289 seats needed for an absolute majority to carry out his program.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, a center-right politician who joined Macron’s movement, said “through their vote, a wide majority of the French have chosen hope over anger.”

With 82 percent of the vote counted, the Interior Ministry said Macron’s party had 42 percent of the vote, the conservative Republicans had 22 percent and the far-right National Front captured 10 percent. The Socialists, who ruled the nation before Macron’s independent presidential victory in May, were decimated and only won six percent of the vote.

Republicans leader Francois Baroin declared his party the main opposition and wished Macron “good luck” because he said he wants France to succeed. He said conservative lawmakers are going to have a strong bloc in the lower house to be able to voice their views.

However, some prickly opponents vowed to do their best to counter Macron’s plans.

National Front leader Marine Le Pen registered a massive victory in her northern bastion of Henin-Beaumont, defeating Macron’s candidate as she won her first French parliamentary seat. Le Pen was handily defeated by Macron in the May 7 presidential vote.