Paris: Emmanuel Macron will not have an absolute majority after legislative polls. French President Emmanuel Macron will not have an absolute majority in the upcoming National Assembly following the second round of legislative elections, according to the final results published on Monday by the Interior Ministry.
Macron’s alliance Ensemble won 245 seats in Sunday’s elections, falling short of the 289 seats required for an absolute majority, reports Xinhua news agency.
Left-wing alliance NUPES led by Jean-Luc Melenchon won 131 seats and the far-right National Rally led by Marine Le Pen made history with 89 seats, according to the official results.
The abstention rate of the second-round vote stood at 53.77 per cent, compared to 57.36 pe rcent in 2017, the Ministry added.
According to French news channel BFMTV, the Cabinet Ministers who were not elected as deputies in their constituency will have to leave the government.
Sunday’s elections include 572 run-off races with a total of 1,148 candidates to elect the 577-member National Assembly.
Macron, who defeated Le Pen to secure his second presidential term in April, had an absolute majority during his first term.
Five years ago, Emmanuel Macron harnessed a wave of optimism, bringing in a fresh cohort of MPs from civil society. The new faces this time have emerged from Nupes and the National Rally.
Among the MPs elected for Nupes, which stands for New Ecological and Social Popular Union, is a hotel chambermaid who led her colleagues in a fight for better pay and conditions. Rachel Keke had vowed to dance in the Assembly if she succeeded in defeating a former sports minister. “This will give other chamber-maids the confidence not to undervalue themselves,” she told French radio.
