French voters are casting ballots Sunday in the final round of parliamentary elections that could clinch President Emmanuel Macron's hold on power, as his fledgling party appears set to rout mainstream rivals and turn politics as usual on its head.
The Interior Ministry said Sunday night that with 513 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly definitively decided, Macron's Republic on the Move! party and its centrist allies had definitively won 303.
He said the Socialist party needs to change its ideas and its organization and that a "collective leadership" will replace him.
Compared to 2012 election, the anti-immigration party improved its performance after snatching 6 seats compared to two now, to represent "the only force of resistance to the dilution of France, its social model and identity", according to Le Pen.
In the presidential election, Le Pen won more than 50% of votes in her head-to-head with Macron in 45 voting districts and drew a total of 10.7 million votes, a historic high for the far-right party.
Disillusion with the political class is one reason given for what is likely to be a record low participation rate that could outdo the record low in last Sunday's first round, measured at 43 percent - five points lower than last week. The Socialists, who held the presidency before Macron's independent presidential victory in May, were decimated and only won six percent of the vote.
France's prime minister says French voters have given a clear majority to new French President Emmanuel Macron and his centrist government.
"It is France Unbowed which will call the country, when the moment comes, to social resistance", Melenchon said.
"We are the only force of resistance to the watering down of France, of its social model and its identity", she said defiantly.
"This majority will be united behind the government to put the president's program into action".
High winds to make final round of US Open interesting
After three all-American seasons at Florida State, the Florida-native chose to start his career in Europe instead of America. Koepka finally took the lead with a 35-foot birdie putt on No. 8. "When that happened it did give me a lot of confidence".
A former environment minister from the moderate faction of the right-wing Republicans, 44-year-old Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet was beaten by a Macron-backed business consultant on the Left Bank of Paris - a conservative bastion.
Far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, who will be another formidable opponent in the parliament after winning a seat from the southern port of Marseille, said voters had gone on "civic general strike" by not voting in the parliamentary polls.
Macron handily beat Le Pen in France's May 7 presidential election.
Last October, at the beginning of Emmanuel Macron's seemingly quixotic quest for the French presidency, Le Monde reported that the French, although always the pessimists, were in a bad funk.
"People are exhausted of always seeing the same faces", said Natacha Dumay, a 59-year-old teacher voting in the northeastern Paris suburb of Pantin, where Socialist former justice minister Elisabeth Guigou was voted out a week ago.
The turnout was much lower than in past legislative elections.
As a consolation prize for her defeat in the presidential election, the 48-year-old leader of the far-right National Front (FN) won a seat representing the northern region of Pas-de-Calais, an FN stronghold.
As of late Sunday evening there were 156 women lawmakers elected to France's National Assembly, already more than ever before, and with 148 seats as yet undecided. Mr Macron, 39, now has a mandate for promised legislation, notably on changing labour laws to make hiring and firing easier.
The Republicans hung on to between 97 and 130 seats, down from over 200 in the last parliament, and remain the main opposition party.
Comments