French voters give Macron a big boost

His party wins solid majority in Parliament

PARIS - French voters gave President Emmanuel Macron a large majority in Parliament with Sunday’s secondround election, handing the independent newcomer what some are calling a political revolution to overhaul the government.

With 82% of the votes counted, Macron’s Republic on the Move! party won 42% of the vote, followed by the conservative Republicans with 22% and the far-right, anti-immigrant National Front at 10%. The Socialists, who ruled the nation before Macron, won only 6%.

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

Republicans leader Francois Baroin declared his party the main opposition after losing to Macron’s movement. He wished Macron “good luck” because he said he wants France to succeed.

Macron’s party was created less than two years ago, yet it dominated in the first round of voting on June 11 and was projected to win 355 to 365 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, the powerful lower house.

Macron, 39, the youngest French head of state since Napoleon Bonaparte, won office in May, promising to lead a revolution to renew confidence in government and revive the country’s stagnant economy with an agenda that mixes liberal and conservative policies.

“It is a movement that disrupts,” said Eddy Fougier, a political scientist with the Parisbased French Institute of International and Strategic Affairs.

“It is not a protest movement because Emmanuel Macron isn’t protesting anything — he is the incarnation of the elite French,” Fougier said. “But it’s like someone who arrived in a market with their start-up where there were already dominant players, and changed the rules.”

Macron has proposed a raft of pro-business measures, including making it easier to hire and fire workers and creating a new tech visa to entice developers and engineers to relocate to France. France’s unemployment stands at 10%, but joblessness among young people is 25%.

He has also pushed back against those in France and Europe who want to break up or weaken the European Union, and criticized far-right politicians who have said countries should close their borders to immigrants fleeing the Syrian civil war and other violence.

Macron voters said they are less interested in his sometimes controversial platform — such as changing France’s strict labor law that is considered a sacred cow — than the fact he is shaking things up.

“It’s time for something new,” said Celine Haroun, 35, a stay-athome mom in Paris who voted for Macron’s party. “I think it’s enough now” from parties that held power in the past.

Those parties have mainly been shut out of governing, as Republic on the Move! wins a majority in Parliament.