Th e centrist party of French President Emmanuel Macron looks on course to win a landslide victory following the fi rst round of parliamentary elections. Projections show La République en Marche (Republic on the Move) and its MoDem ally set to win up to 445 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly. Th e Socialists, France’s former ruling party, are seen losing 200 seats.
Traditional parties are urging voters to back Mr Macron’s rivals in a run-off vote to avoid him monopolising power. Mr Macron’s party was established just over a year ago and many candidates have little or no political experience. Th e fi nal outcome will be decided in the second round of voting next Sunday. With all the ballots counted, Mr Macron’s LREM and MoDem won 32.3% of the vote. Th e centre-right Republicans had 21.5%, while the far-right National Front (FN) had 13.2%,
followed by the far-left La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) on just over 11%. Th e Socialists, previously France’s ruling party, and their allies won just 9.5%. But turnout was sharply down, at 48.7% compared with 57.2% in the fi rst round in 2012, which analysts said refl ected a sense of resignation among Mr Macron’s opponents.
