WEB DESK
French President Emmanuel Macron’S centrist party is all set to win a landslide victory following the first round of parliamentary elections.
As polls closed, projections showed La Republique en Marche (Republic on the Move) set to win more than 400 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly.
Mr Macron’s party was established just over a year ago and many candidates have little or no political experience. The second round of the vote is held next Sunday. Forecasts by two polling organisations gave LREM well over 30% of first round votes.
The far-right National Front party of former presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is projected to win 14 percent of the vote, relatively unchanged from its performance in the 2012 election.
The conservative Republicans are projected to win 16 percent of the vote, while the far-left party of Jean-Luc Melenchon is set to pick up roughly 10 percent. The Socialist Party, which had dominated the outgoing lower house, is likely to pick up 7 percent.
“It is neither healthy nor desirable for a president who gathered only 24 percent of the vote in the first round of the presidential election and who was elected in the second round only by the rejection of the extreme right should benefit from a monopoly of national representation,” said Socialist leader Jean-Christophe Cambadelis.
Historically low turnout
The French interior ministry said voter turnout hit about 41 percent by late afternoon, marking a significant drop since the 2012 vote that saw 48 percent voter participation. The ministry later said that voter abstention rate was 51.4 percent.
Macron needs a parliamentary majority in the lower house in order to push through some of his more controversial legislation, such as labor and economic reforms.