French President Macron heads for crushing parliamentary majority

‍French President Emmanuel Macron's party is on course for an overwhelming parliamentary majority after Sunday's first round of voting for the National Assembly left traditional parties in disarray.

Forecasts based on partial results showed Macron widening his centrist revolution, with his Republique en Marche (Republic on the Move, REM) Party and its ally MoDem tipped to win between 400 and 445 seats in the 577-member National Assembly in next Sunday's second round. Such a share would give Macron one of the biggest parliamentary majorities for 60 years.

"France is back," Prime Minister Edouard Philippe declared triumphantly.

"For the past month, the president has shown confidence, willingness and daring in France and on the international stage," Philippe said, calling the result a vindication of Macron's "winning strategy."

But the vote was marked by record low turnout of 49 percent, possibly reflecting fatalism among Macron's opponents in the face of his seemingly unstoppable advance, experts said.

The right-wing Republicans – who had hoped to rebound from their humiliation in the presidential vote – were shown trailing in second with a predicted 70-130 seats while Marine Le Pen's far-right National Front (FN) was forecast to garner between one and 10 seats.

The FN's result showed the party is struggling to rebound from Le Pen's bruising defeat by Macron in the presidential run-off. The FN's deputy leader Florian Philippot admitted to "disappointment" and called on voters to "mobilize massively" for the second round.

Preliminary first round results of French legislative elections announced at 8 p.m. on June 11, 2017. /VCG Photo

The worst losses, however, were for the Socialists of Macron's predecessor Francois Hollande, who are predicted to lose a staggering 200 seats. The party's chief Jean-Christophe Cambadelis and its failed presidential candidate Benoit Hamon both lost their seats.

Macron professes to be of neither right nor left. His party fielded both seasoned veterans and political novices including a former bullfighter, a fighter pilot and a former armed police commander.

Few MPs were elected outright on Sunday. If no candidate wins over 50 percent, the two top-placed contenders go into the second round – along with any other candidate who garners at least 12.5 percent of registered voters in the district.

'Renewal of political class'

The final result shows Macron's one-year-old REM and MoDem winning between 32.32 percent in the first round, ahead of the Republicans on 21.56 percent.

"It's a renewal of the political class," said Jose Jeffrey, a Health Ministry administrator who voted REM.

Macron, a former investment banker, wants what supporters describe as a "big bang" of economic and social reforms, including an easing of stringent labor laws and reform of an unwieldy pension system.

The pro-European leader's program enjoys strong support among liberal, well-educated voters in France's big cities, but he is less popular in poorer areas where industry is in decline.

Rival: Macron's likely huge majority a worry for democracy

Conceding that the Socialist Party was facing "unprecedented" losses, Cambadelis appealed to voters to rally behind Macron's rivals to avoid the president monopolizing power. Parliament risked having "no real oversight powers and no democratic debate worth speaking of," he warned.

French Socialist Party First Secretary Jean-Christophe Cambadelis gives a speech after the polls closed in the first round of France's legislative elections in Paris, June 11, 2017. /VCG Photo

"It is neither healthy nor desirable for a president who gathered only 24 percent of the vote in the first round of the presidentials and who was elected in the second round only by the rejection of the extreme right should benefit from a monopoly of national representation," he said.

Merkel congratulates Macron

France's youngest-ever president at 39, Macron has gained praise for appointing a balanced cabinet that straddles the left-right divide and taking a leading role in Europe's fight-back against US President Donald Trump on climate change.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel congratulated Macron on a "great success" Sunday. "Chancellor Merkel: My sincere congratulations to Emmanuel Macron for the great success of his party in the first round. A vote for reforms," tweeted her spokesman Steffen Seibert.

If the seat projections are confirmed next week, Macron will have a strong mandate to push through the ambitious labor, economic and social reforms he promised on the campaign trail.

(Source: AFP, Reuters)