French President Emmanuel Macron poses for photo with his supporters after he voted at the city hall in the second round of the parliamentary elections in Le Touquet, France on June 18, 2017. (Xinhua/Kristina Afanasyeva)
PARIS, June 19 (Xinhua) -- A clear parliamentary majority won by the Republic on the Move (LREM) party in France on Sunday is expected to clear the way ahead for the 39-year-old French President Emmanuel Macron.
LREM, Macron's one-year-old party, net 315 seats, more than the 289 seats needed for a majority in France's 577-member National Assembly in Sunday's second and final round of the parliamentary elections, showed partial vote count made by Kantar Sofres-onepoint pollster.
With its allies from MoDem centrist party, LREM is expected to be represented by 360 seats. Such a scenario will mean Macron doesn't have to give up much to pass legislations he wants in the future.
Such new bills are expected to range from concerning labor codes, public expenditure cutbacks by billions of euros, tax hikes on consumption and wealthy pensioners to more investments in training and innovative sectors.
A young president with the parliamentary support of his young party has turned out to be the French electorate's choice as well as an answer to a worrying surge in populism and rightism in Western countries highlighted by the Brexit and Donald Trump's taking presidential power in the United States.
"French voters have in their vast majority preferred hope to anger, optimism to pessimism, confidence to withdrawal," French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe commented.
"A year ago, no one would have imagined political renewal like this. We owe it to the drive of the president of the republic to give new life to democracy. We owe it, too, to the French people, who wanted to give the national representation a new face," he added.
Expectations of Macron are believed to be based partly on his centrist policies, which are prone to both free market and a belief in the government role.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel congratulated Macron, through her spokesperson on tweets, on his winning the "clear parliamentary majority," while wishing for "further good cooperation for Germany, France, Europe".
However, a projected historic low turnout is likely to cloud Macron's triumph to have free hand to put in action his recipe for the eurozone's second main powerhouse.
According to opinion polls, abstention which used to swing between 15 percent and 30 percent over the past four decades, would be over 50 percent during the Sunday runoff, a further sign for Macron that his stay at the Elysee Palace won't be totally rosy.
Government spokesperson Christophe Castaner said the French disinterest "is as an additional responsibility and it will allow Emmanuel Macron, Edouard Philippe to never forget that deep down there is no victory tonight and the real victory will be in five years when things will really have changed."
In addition, the first-time entry into parliament by Marine Le Pen, leader of the anti-immigration National Front with its seats increased from the previous two to six currently in the voting, may still prove to be a significant outlet of certain rightist sentiment in France.
Another change in the country's political landscape is the resulting step-down of Jean-Christophe Cambadelis as party chief of the outgoing ruling Socialist Party, which lost its lead with 32 seats seemingly in a punishment vote due to poor achievements.h "Tonight, the collapse of the Socialist Party is undeniable, the president of the Republic has all the powers," Cambadelis said on Sunday.
