French President Emmanuel Macron is not guaranteed to win an absolute majority in parliament, exit polls showed, after a new leftist alliance scored a strong appearance in the first round of parliamentary elections on Sunday.
Macron’s coalition bloc is expected to win, on June 19, between 270 and 310 seats in Parliament – ​​the mark set for an absolute majority is 289 seats –, according to a projection by Elabe, while the left was estimated to get 170 to 220 seats, a big jump from 2017.
Elabe’s initial projections put leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon’s Nupes bloc side by side with Macron’s Ensemble alliance in the first round, with 26.2% and 25.8% of the vote, respectively.
Like the two-round system, which is applied to 577 electoral districts across the country, the popular vote in the first round is not indicative of who will win a majority on June 19, when the second round takes place.
Macron’s ability to pass his agenda of measures is at stake, including a pension reform he says is essential to restore order to public finances. His leftist opponents are pushing to lower the retirement age and launch a major spending campaign.
Government officials expect a relatively poor performance for Macron’s coalition in this first round. The Melenchon bloc has taken advantage of popular discontent over the rising cost of living in France.
A record number of people are expected to abstain, polls project, with more than half of all registered voters away from polling stations on a hot, sunny Sunday.
Initial post-presidential election projections showed Macron on course to win a majority in Parliament. But the president has kept a low profile since the vote, taking two weeks to form a government and rarely making appearances.
Source: CNN Brasil
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