PARIS �� French President Emmanuel Macron's party headed for a clear majority in the National Assembly after voters rallied behind their new head of state in the first round of legislative elections Sunday.
Macron's year-old party, Republic on the Move, won about 33 percent of the vote, about 13 percentage points ahead of the Republicans, according to pollsters' projections based on an early vote count. The result could give Macron's party as many as 445 of the 577 seats in the lower house of parliament, according to projections by Elabe. The lowest estimate for his seat count was from Ipsos, which predicted 390 to 430 seats.
The results defied the conventional wisdom in France _ much repeated by Macron's rivals during the presidential campaign _ that his fledgling party would never secure the majority required to govern, leaving the country in limbo. Instead, the new
One key plank of the party's platform is a clabor-market overhaul that Macron has promised to deliver by mid-September. With the French economy lagging its peers, Macron also wants to change tax rates and fix inequalities in the pension system. He's already started to revamp French intelligence services after terrorists killed more than 200 people since the beginning of 2015.
Simplifying France's labor code was one of Macron's main campaign promises. The president began a round of initial meetings with union leaders within 10 days of taking office May 14. Those talks will begin after next Sunday's second-round vote as the government seeks common ground for reworking the country's Byzantine labor rules.
Macron wants individual companies to negotiate wages rather than being bound by industrywide agreements. He has argued that a more flexible labor market would help boost growth and win the trust of France's European partners, above all Germany.
For at least two decades, French unions have opposed such efforts, emphasizing instead job protection for their members, but in a a week, Macron may be in a stronger position than any other French president for a generation. With a majority in parliament and hundreds of lawmakers who are new to politics, the president would hold extensive control over the government.
The Socialists and their allies, who held power under Francois Hollande until just weeks ago, will be reduced to 20 to 35 seats from the 331 they won in 2012 as many of their voters and lawmakers rally to Macron, Ipsos projected.
The Socialists are also facing a challenge from the left from Jean-Luc Melenchon's France Unbowed. The far-left candidate won 19 percent of the vote in the first round of the presidential election and his party will get 11 to 21 seats, Ipsos said.
The Republicans, the heirs to Charles de Gaulle who looked set to take power themselves six months ago, will have 85 to 125 seats.
National Front leader Marine Le Pen's party will win 3 and to seats.
����
(Helene Fouquet contributed to this report.)
