CNN
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French voters appear ready to deprive the newly elected centrist President Emmanuel Macron An absolute majority in Parliament, limiting its hand to a second term.
Macron’s centrist coalition Ensemble has been shown in partial results released by the French Interior Ministry on Sunday. It is likely to miss the threshold of an absolute majority – 289 seats in the National Assembly, France’s lower house – although it will remain the largest parliamentary bloc.
Based on a 90% percentage of the votes in the second round, Macron’s coalition came first with 37.6% of the votes.
According to partial results from the Ministry of the Interior, the left-wing coalition New Ecological and Social People’s Union (NUPES), led by far-left Jean-Luc Mélancheon, is set to come in second and is projected to win 30.34% of the vote.
The NUPES would then become the country’s main opposition force, but the coalition is expected to split on some issues once parliament is in place.
“This is a completely unexpected situation, absolutely unheard of,” Mélenchon said soon after the partial results were released.
“The collapse of the presidential party is total, and no majority has been presented. We have achieved the political goal we had set in less than a month, which, with so much arrogance, turned the hands of the entire nation Who was chosen without knowing why,” he said.
Macron would become the first incumbent president since the 2000 electoral reforms to not win a parliamentary majority. His alliance is expected to try to forge alliances with other political parties, including Reaching the Traditional Right, which came in fourth on Sunday.
“This is an unprecedented situation, and a risk to our country,” French Prime Minister Elisabeth Born said on Sunday. “As of tomorrow, we will work on building an action-oriented majority, there is no substitute for that coalition, to guarantee the stability of our country and implement the reforms needed.”
Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally Party is set to come third with 18.92%, according to partial interior ministry results.
“This group will be by far the largest in our political history,” said party leader Marine Le Pen, who was re-elected as MP, “we continue to bring the French people together within a great popular movement.” Going to keep the Patriots right and left, to start the recovery that France needs.”
Like the first election in June, voting on Sunday saw a low turnout, with a decrease of about 53%, according to the Interior Ministry.
Macron won a second term in the presidential election in April. The president – who is seeking to raise the retirement age, pursue a pro-business agenda and further EU integration – now enters an undisclosed area of negotiation and compromise after five years of undisputed control.