Emmanuel Macron\u2019s centrist grouping was neck and neck with a new leftwing alliance led by the hard-left\u00a0Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon\u00a0in the vote share of the first round of parliamentary elections.<\/p>\n
A frantic final week of campaigning will begin on Monday before the second round, as Macron\u2019s centrists still hope to edge ahead but face uncertainty over whether they can win a crucial majority of seats in parliament.<\/p>\n
Macron\u2019s centrist alliance, Ensemble (Together), took 25.75% of the vote, according to results published by the interior ministry on Monday morning. A historic alliance of parties on the left, led by M\u00e9lenchon\u2019s\u00a0France\u00a0Unbowed party and including the Socialists and the Greens, took 25.66% \u2013 presenting a challenge to Macron.<\/p>\n
Turnout on Sunday was estimated to have hit a record low of about 47%, according to polling firm projections, after candidates described the mood among voters as angry and disillusioned at the political class. Olivia Gr\u00e9goire, the government spokesperson, said the low turnout was the \u201ckey issue\u201d.<\/p>\n
Shortly after the first projections emerged, M\u00e9lenchon urged voters to turn out in a week\u2019s time to \u201creject definitively the disastrous policies of Mr Macron\u2019s majority\u201d, and claimed the \u201cpresidential party is beaten and defeated\u201d.<\/p>\n
New prime minister \u00c9lisabeth Borne said: \u201cWe have a week ahead of us to mobilise \u2026 One week to convince, one week to obtain a powerful and clear majority.\u201d Ensemble was \u201cthe only political grouping capable of getting a majority\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n
Macron, who was re-elected president in April against the far-right\u2019s Marine Le Pen, needs a majority for his centrist grouping in the national assembly in order to have a\u00a0free hand for his proposals\u00a0to cut taxes and make changes to the welfare system.<\/p>\n
The parliamentary results will set the balance of power for Macron\u2019s second term, defining his capacity to deliver domestic policies such as raising the retirement age and overhauling the benefits system.<\/p>\n
M\u00e9lenchon\u2019s alliance \u2013 known as the Nupes, or the New Popular Ecological and Social Union \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>is seeking to increase its seats and reduce the number of Macron\u2019s centrists. The coalition\u2019s platform includes a significant minimum wage increase, lowering the retirement age to 60 and a freeze in basic food and energy prices to address the cost of living crisis.<\/p>\n France\u2019s constituency-based, first-past-the-post voting system for parliament means that the exact number of seats for each grouping remains hard to predict. The shape of the new parliament will become clear only after the second round on 19 June.<\/p>\n Based on early estimations, Ispos predicted Macron\u2019s centrist alliance would win the greatest share of the 577-seat parliament \u2013 taking between 255 and 295 seats. This suggested there was a chance they could fall short of an absolute majority, which requires 289 seats.<\/p>\n If Macron\u2019s party and his allies\u00a0fail to secure a majority, it would be a setback for the president and could prompt messy bill-by-bill deals with rightwing parties in parliament or an unwanted cabinet reshuffle.<\/p>\n The left alliance could take between 150 and 190 seats, according to Ipsos.<\/p>\n Macron and ministers had stepped up campaigning this week, warning M\u00e9lenchon was dangerous and an extremist who would kill the European Union, \u201cally with Russia\u201d and add to \u201cworld disorder\u201d.<\/p>\n Le Pen\u2019s far-right National Rally party, which won eight seats in 2017, hopes this time to get at least 15 seats, allowing it to form a parliamentary group and gain greater visibility at the national assembly. Ipsos suggested the party could take up to 45 seats. Despite Le Pen coming second in the presidential election with a historic high of 41%, the first-past-the-post voting system for parliament has historically proved difficult for her party in legislative elections.<\/p>\n Le Pen, from the stronghold of H\u00e9nin-Beaumont, in northern France, called on her voters to turn out for her party against what she called Macron\u2019s \u201cbrutal\u201d style of politics. She said France was suffering, citing the cost of living crisis as well as the treatment of English fans at the Champions League final in Paris, seen as damaging France\u2019s image abroad.<\/p>\n Le Pen\u2019s new rival on the far right, the former TV pundit \u00c9ric Zemmour, was eliminated in the first round after standing in a constituency around Saint-Tropez in southern France.<\/p>\n The first weeks of the new government have been tense in the run-up to the parliamentary elections, with hospital strikes and concerns about the cost of living, and Macron has been accused by Ukraine of being too accommodating to Russia.<\/p>\n Macron\u2019s new disabilities minister, Damien Abad, has faced two rape accusations \u2013 which he has denied \u2013 but which prompted street demonstrations over women\u2019s rights, while Borne has yet to make an impact.<\/p>\n Borne, who is running for the first time in a Normandy seat, was well-placed for the second round run-off.<\/p>\n Jean-Michel Blanquer, Macron\u2019s former education minister, was eliminated in the first round in the Loiret.<\/p>\n Macron has made it clear that serving ministers who are running for election will have to step down if they lose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Emmanuel Macron\u2019s centrist grouping was neck and neck with a new leftwing alliance led by the hard-left\u00a0Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon\u00a0in the vote share of the first round of parliamentary elections. A frantic final week of campaigning will begin on Monday before the second round, as Macron\u2019s centrists still hope to edge ahead but face uncertainty over whether […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":23357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[11261,9951,6728,11941,3782,1911,8924,6672,8440,5262,423,5103,911,524,5494,7712,9505,1195,9026,8008,6496,5575,12027,6351,2264,2416,6825,12773,764,5803,7169,414,11743,5904,6864,7155,7170,7168,11973,1253,1198,8386,5424,3805,11377,1776,10390,3174,5333,5762,9089,13301,8443,3457,7963,11325,6206,8206,5180,7231,6348,3954,5320,36,594],"class_list":["post-23356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-accused","tag-age","tag-alliance","tag-bill","tag-cabinet","tag-champions-league","tag-chance","tag-cost-of-living","tag-crisis","tag-cut","tag-education","tag-education-minister","tag-election","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-energy","tag-english","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-fans","tag-far-right","tag-food","tag-france","tag-freeze","tag-french","tag-government","tag-h","tag-hospital","tag-increase","tag-jean-luc","tag-le-pen","tag-lepen","tag-macron","tag-majority","tag-marine-le-pen","tag-ministers","tag-national-assembly","tag-new-prime-minister-elisabeth-borne","tag-nupes","tag-one","tag-paris","tag-parliament","tag-platform","tag-politics","tag-president","tag-presidential","tag-presidential-election","tag-prices","tag-prime-minister","tag-rally","tag-rape","tag-reshuffle","tag-results","tag-retirement","tag-russia","tag-saint","tag-street","tag-taxes","tag-treatment","tag-ukraine","tag-union","tag-us","tag-will","tag-women","tag-world","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}