Macron win is predicted in latest French election
French polling agencies are projecting that President Emmanuel Macron’s new centrist party has crushed traditional rivals in the first round of parliamentary elections.
The projections from Sunday’s voting show Mr Macron’s En Marche movement is in a strong position to win the decisive second round vote on June 18.
His party is projected to win well beyond an absolute majority in the 577-seat National Assembly, followed by the conservative Republicans.
The Republicans and Socialists dominated the house for generations.
Mr Macron wants a powerful mandate to push through plans to reduce worker protections to boost hiring, boost security and clean up corruption in politics.
Polling agencies also project a historically low turnout of around 50%, reflecting fatigue after a rollercoaster election season that brought Mr Macron to power last month.
The National Front of far-right leader Marine Le Pen seemingly failed to convert her strong showing in the presidential election into a large number of legislative seats.
Pollsters projected it could have 10 or fewer legislators – more than the two it had in the last parliament, but not enough to make the National Front the major opposition force Ms Le Pen was hoping for after she advanced for the first time to the presidential run-off vote that Mr Macron won on May 7.
The two mainstream parties that dominated French politics for decades were again left licking their wounds, marginalised by the swing of voter support behind Mr Macron’s political revolution.
The former banker and economics minister who had never before held elected office gambled correctly that voters were ready for something completely new – a movement occupying the political centre ground, made up largely of new faces, many of them with no political experience at all.
The record low turnout, however, took some shine off the achievement for En Marche – a fledgling party fighting its first-ever election and dedicated to providing France’s youngest-ever president with the legislative majority he needs to be effective and enact his promised programme of far-reaching change for France.
Voter rejection of old-style, established politics – already seen in the April-May two-round presidential vote that handed power to 39-yearold Mr Macron – was again felt in the legislative vote.
Pollsters projected a disastrous result on Sunday for the Socialists that held power in the last parliament and forecast that the conservative Republicans could end up with fewer than 130 seats. The conservatives had 215 seats in the outgoing parliament.
For the Socialists and their allies, the damage was even worse. They had 314 seats in the last election but could end up with 25 or fewer seats in the new National Assembly, pollsters projected.