French voters have put President Emmanuel Macron's party on course for a crushing parliamentary majority, though a record low turnout in the first round of voting raised concerns Monday over the strength of his future mandate. Those who did gave Macron's the Republic on the Move party 28 percent of the vote - more than 12 points ahead of the closest rival, the mainstream conservatives.
France's right wing Republican party, allied with the Union of Democrats and Independents, secured 18.80 percent.
President Emmanuel Macron's new party is set for a landslide victory in the latest round of the French election, allowing him to govern the country nearly unopposed for the next five years.
Projections show La Republique en Marche (Republic on the Move) and its MoDem ally set to win up to 445 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly.
Centrist Emmanuel Macron was sworn in as the eighth president of the French Fifth Republic in a ceremony at the Elysee Palace on Sunday.
Macron's party was established just over a year ago and many candidates have little or no political experience.
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.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen put on a courageous face in front of the cameras on election night and trumpeted her own first-place score in the northern constituency she is vying to represent.
The National Front, reeling from a weaker-than-expected score for chief Marine Le Pen in the presidential election, could miss its target to get enough lawmakers to form a parliamentary group, though it is expected to do much better than the two deputies it had in the previous legislature.
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Macron, who won the presidency on his platform of being a pro-European centrist, is hoping to carry out far-reaching reforms in order to overhaul the country's political system and economy.
Mr Philippe said voters sent a "message without ambiguity" in the first round elections that they want a parliament with a "new face".
Elsewhere, German Chancellor Angela Merkel - who, like Macron, has a pro-EU stance - congratulated him on the "great success" of his party. Less than half of France's 47.5 million electorate cast ballots.
Voters said polls that had predicted a large majority for Macron's camp likely dissuaded people from turning out.
"For the past month, the president has shown confidence, willingness and daring in France and on the global stage", Philippe said, calling the result a vindication of Macron's "winning strategy".
The opposition and French press expressed concern over what the left-wing Liberation daily called the "quasi-Stalinist result".
Its leader Jean-Christophe Cambadelis as well as its candidate for the presidential election earlier this year, Benoit Hamon, were eliminated in the first round. The National Front party can receive from five to 15 seats in the parliament.
But they've got their work cut out: all signs suggest the French President will win convincingly next Sunday.
Few candidates reached the 50-percent mark needed for election at the first round.
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