Emmanuel Macron wins a majority, though not a record one

THE final piece of France’s electoral puzzle fell into place on Sunday evening, when voters handed Emmanuel Macron’s party a solid majority of seats in the National Assembly. After polling stations closed on June 18th, it soon became clear that La République en Marche! (LRM), the president’s political movement, had won about 359 of the 577 seats. This gives Mr Macron a handsome working majority with which to start work on his programme of reforms.

It was a measure of how quickly expectations in France have shifted that LRM’s final result was considered in some ways disappointing. After first-round voting on June 11th, polls suggested that LRM might grab over 400 seats. The abstention rate, at fully 57%, was historically high for a second-round parliamentary vote, possibly because voters considered the result a foregone conclusion. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the far-left Unsubmissive France party, who won...Continue reading

Souce: Europe http://ift.tt/2sOcpgP

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