Macron loses absolute majority in parliament, initial projections show

Shafaq News / President Emmanuel Macron is on course to lose his absolute majority in the National Assembly and control of his reform agenda after the first projections by four pollsters showed Sunday's election delivering a hung parliament.

Macron's centrist Ensemble! alliance was set to end up with the most seats, the polls showed, followed by the left-wing Nupes bloc headed by the hard left veteran Jean-Luc Melenchon.

But the threshold for an absolute majority is 289 seats in the lower house, and the four pollsters' projections showed Macron and his allies would fall well short of that.

If confirmed, a hung parliament would open up a period of political uncertainty that would require a degree of power-sharing among parties not experienced in France in recent decades, or else political paralysis and even possibly repeat elections.

Rachida Dati, from the conservative Les Republicains, called the results "a bitter failure" for Macron and said he should name a new prime minister.

"It's Emmanuel Macron's arrogance, his contempt for the French ... which made him a minority president," said Jordan Bardella, from Marine Le Pen's far-right Rassemblement National party.

In Macron's camp, Gabriel Attal told TF1 TV: "Nobody has won," while government spokeswoman Olivia Gregoire said the results were disappointing but noted the alliance was still set to be the biggest group in parliament.

(Reuters)