Partial official results show that French President Emmanuel Macron's new centrist party is clearly leading the first round of parliamentary elections crucial to his plans to change France. (LREM) party topped Sunday's first-round legislative vote and appeared poised to claim a historic majority in parliament.
Such a large majority would strengthen the fiercely pro-EU leader's hand in the Brexit talks.
Having controlled Parliament for the last five years, the Socialists were expected to win just 7.4 percent of the vote in the legislative elections this year. But he looked set to capitalise with the traditional parties in disarray after troubled presidential campaigns.
"Emmanuel Macron is set to pull off the most spectacular grand slam of the Fifth Republic", wrote Laurent Joffrin of the left-leaning Liberation daily.
'I love it. People recognise the photo, and they smile, ' he told the Economist.
Marine Le Pen's Front National has done badly with just 13pc of the vote, meaning the party is likely to finish up in third place and win between three and ten seats in the second round - leaving them short of the 15 seats needed to form a parliamentary group in the National Assembly.
With 90 percent of votes accounted for, Macron's La Republique En Marche (REM) and allies had won 31.9 percent support, Interior Ministry results showed.
When Macron won the French presidency last month in a landslide, it did not necessarily follow that the new leader - the youngest in modern French history, who has promised a slew of broad, sweeping reforms, many in the notoriously hard labor sector - would carry any kind of lead in the two rounds of legislative elections now underway.
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If there is no clear victor, all candidates who win more than 12.5 percent in the first round qualify for the second round next Sunday. Polls project it could win about a dozen seats, in part because of a voting system that favors the biggest parties.
Turnout was sharply down at 49%, compared with the previous election in 2012, when 57% of voters turned out.
The worst losses, however, were for the Socialists of Macron's predecessor Francois Hollande and their allies, who are predicted to lose a staggering 200 seats.
In a once-unimaginable scenario, Macron's centrist party - established little more than a year ago - was projected to win between 390 and 430 of the French Parliament's 577 seats, according to an Ipsos-Sopra analysis.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's office tweeted her congratulations to Macron for his party's victory.
It agrees with most of Macron's policies and the newly nominated prime minister, Emmanuel Philippe, as well as the minister of economy, Bruno Le Maire, were both lifted from the party's ranks.
If the seat projections are confirmed next week he will have a strong mandate to push through the ambitious labour, economic and social reforms he promised on the campaign trail.
Le Pen and other opposition figures chose instead to highlight the abstention rate, which the National Front leader described as "catastrophic", calling on "patriots" to turn out "massively" in next Sunday's second round, which will fill most of the assembly's seats.
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