{"id":34000,"date":"2017-06-12T06:43:19","date_gmt":"2017-06-12T06:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=34000"},"modified":"2017-06-12T06:43:19","modified_gmt":"2017-06-12T06:43:19","slug":"macrons-party-set-for-huge-french-parliamentary-majority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=34000","title":{"rendered":"Macron\u2019s party set for huge French parliamentary majority"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Macrons-608x450\"Pollsters project Macron's alliance could win as many as three-quarters of the seats in the lower house after next week's second round of voting<\/h2>\n
President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s fledgling party is set to trounce France\u2019s traditional main parties in a parliamentary election and secure a huge majority to push through his pro-business reforms, projections after the first round showed on Sunday.<\/div>\n
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The vote delivered a further crushing blow to the Socialist and conservative parties that had alternated in power for decades until Macron\u2019s election in May blew apart the left-right divide.<\/p>\n

With 90% of voters accounted for, Macron\u2019s Republic on the Move (LREM) and Modem allies had won 31.9% support, Interior Ministry results showed.<\/p>\n

The conservative party The Republicans and allied centre-right Union of Democrats and Independents held 18.9%, the National Front 13.8% and the Socialists 7.4%.<\/p>\n

Pollsters project Macron\u2019s alliance could win as many as three-quarters of the seats in the lower house after next week\u2019s second round of voting.<\/p>\n

That would give France\u2019s youngest leader since Napoleon a powerful mandate to make good on campaign pledges to revive France\u2019s fortunes by cleaning up politics and easing regulations that investors say hobble the euro zone\u2019s second-biggest economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrance is back,\u201d Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on French TV. \u201cNext Sunday, the National Assembly will embody the new face of our republic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voter turnout was a record low for parliamentary elections in the post-war Fifth Republic at 48.6%, taking the shine off Macron\u2019s margin of victory in the first round.<\/p>\n

Both the Socialists and the conservative Republicans urged more voters to cast their ballots in the June 18 second round, warning them against allowing too much power to be concentrated in the hands of one party.<\/p>\n

Macron professes to be of neither right nor left. His one-year-old LREM party fielded both seasoned veterans and political novices including a former bullfighter, a fighter pilot and a former armed police commander.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a renewal of the political class,\u201d said Jose Jeffrey, a Health Ministry administrator who voted LREM.<\/p>\n

Unprecedented setback<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Projections by three pollsters of LREM\u2019s tally after the second round ranged from 390 to 445 of the assembly\u2019s 577 seats \u2013 potentially the biggest majority since president Charles De Gaulle\u2019s conservatives won more than 80% of seats in 1968.<\/p>\n

Macron, a former investment banker, wants what supporters describe as a \u201cbig bang\u201d of economic and social reforms, including an easing of stringent labour laws and reform of an unwieldy pension system.<\/p>\n

The pro-European leader\u2019s program enjoys strong support among liberal, well-educated voters in France\u2019s big cities, but he is less popular in poorer areas where industry is in decline.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s projections pointed to another torrid night for the two main traditional parties, which have suffered high-profile defections to Macron\u2019s government, as well as the far-right National Front.<\/p>\n

The Socialist Party suffered in particular. Its chief, Jean-Christophe Cambadelis, confirmed he had been eliminated from his long-held Paris seat, a symbol of his party\u2019s stunning demise after five years in power. Benoit Hamon, its failed presidential candidate, was also headed for the exit door.<\/p>\n

Cambadelis acknowledged that the first round marked an \u201cunprecedented\u201d setback for the party, set to win a paltry 30-40 seats, and the broader left.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is neither healthy nor desirable for a president who gathered only 24% of the vote in the first round of the presidenFtials and who was elected in the second round only by the rejection of the extreme right should benefit from a monopoly of national representation,\u201d Cambadelis said.<\/p>\n

Francois Baroin, who led the campaign of the conservative Republicans, projected to win 80-100 seats, echoed the sentiment.<\/p>\n

National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who led the voting in her northern constituency, called the huge abstention rate \u201ccatastrophic\u201d and urged supporters to turn out in a week\u2019s time.<\/p>\n

Pollsters projected her party, which is still reeling from her disappointing showing in the presidential run-off vote against Macron, will next week win just a small handful of seats \u2013 perhaps as few as one.<\/p>\n

Among the LREM political newcomers who went through to second round were his key ministers and a retired bullfighter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pollsters project Macron’s alliance could win as many as three-quarters of the seats in the lower house after next week’s second round of voting President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s fledgling party is set to trounce France\u2019s traditional main parties in a parliamentary election and secure a huge majority to push through his pro-business reforms, projections after the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":34001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n