Yahoo – AFP,
Clare BYRNE, Guy JACKSON, June 11, 2017
Paris (AFP)
- French President Emmanuel Macron's party topped the first round of voting in
Sunday's parliamentary elections, putting him on course for an overwhelming
majority to implement his programme of ambitious reforms.
Estimates
based on partial results showed Macron's year-old Republique en Marche
(Republic on the Move, REM) and its ally MoDem on 32.2-32.9 percent, ahead of
the right-wing Republicans on 20.9-21.5 percent. The far-right National Front
(FN) was seen third with 13.1-14 percent.
Seat projections
showed Macron's camp going on to win between 390 and 445 seats in the
577-member National Assembly after next Sunday's second round -- continuing his
centrist revolution which has left France's traditional parties in tatters.
Both the
Republicans -- who had hoped to upstage Macron in the parliamentary election --
and the Socialists of Macron's predecessor Francois Hollande appeared set for
steep losses.
Marine Le
Pen's FN party was left disappointed as she struggles to rebound from her
bruising defeat by Macron in the presidential run-off, with the party's result
largely unchanged from the first round of the 2012 vote.
Turnout was
markedly down on Sunday compared with the last parliamentary election,
reflecting a degree of fatalism among Macron's opponents in the face of his
advance as well as a degree of election fatigue, experts said.
Around 49
percent of the electorate cast a ballot -- one of the lowest levels in such an
election in decades.
The results
showed Macron continuing to impress the French, a month after being elected
France's youngest-ever president on May 7.
Since then
he has won 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's decision to withdraw from a global climate accord.
If the seat
projections are confirmed next week he will have a strong mandate to push
through the ambitious labour, economic and social reforms he promised on the
campaign trail.
Few MPs are
expected to be elected outright on Sunday.
French
voters have traditionally rallied behind their new leader in the legislative
elections that follow the presidential ballot (AFP Photo/Patrick HERTZOG)
|
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.
More than
50,000 police were on patrol during the vote, with France still jittery after a
wave of jihadist attacks across Europe.
In the
latest incident, a 40-year-old self-radicalised Algerian was shot and wounded
after he attacked a policeman with a hammer outside Paris's Notre Dame
cathedral on Tuesday.
Political
novices
Macron, who
had never held elected office before becoming president, has run novices
seeking to emulate his success in around 200 constituencies -- part of his bid
to inject new blood in French politics.
They
include Marie Sara, a retired bullfighter, who is taking on Gilbert Collard, a
senior member of Le Pen's National Front in southern France.
Macron is
also trying to usher in an era of cleaner politics. His government's first bill
proposes to ban lawmakers from employing family members or performing
consultancy work while in office.
The
measures follow the scandal that destroyed the presidential bid of Republicans
candidate Francois Fillon, who has been charged over payments to his wife and
two of his children for suspected fake jobs as parliamentary assistants. Fillon
denies the charges.
Two
parties, Le Pen's National Front and the small centrist MoDem party, an REM
ally, are meanwhile under investigation over alleged expenses fraud at the
European Parliament.
One of
Macron's ministers who is running for re-election in Brittany, Richard Ferrand,
is also being probed over a property deal involving his girlfriend.
France's
far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen is expected to notch
up a paltry
score in the election (AFP Photo/Denis Charlet)
|
FN falls
short
Le Pen's
party will struggle to win the 15 seats it would need to form a parliamentary
group, being forecast to take only 10.
The
radical-left France Insoumise (France Unbowed) party of Jean-Luc Melenchon also
fell short of expectations.
Macron has
urged voters to back his reform proposals including an overhaul of the rigid
rules governing the job market, blamed by many economists for holding back
growth.
The
president was economy minister in the Socialist government that began loosening
the labour laws last year, sparking mass demonstrations that lasted for months.
#UPDATE French President Emmanuel Macron's party is on course for an overwhelming parliamentary majority https://t.co/hJO1qshXjF pic.twitter.com/kdXLyynBlk— AFP news agency (@AFP) June 11, 2017
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