Macron set for big win in second round of parliamentary polls

Voters turned out in low numbers on Sunday in the second round of France's parliamentary election, where President Emmanuel Macron is expected to win a landslide majority that should allow him to embark on far-reaching pro-business reforms.

Interior ministry data shows voter turnout reached 17.75 percent by 1200 (1000 GMT), its lowest ever at that time of day for a second round of parliamentary elections since at least 1997.

"People know it's already a done deal," Alex Mpoy, a 38-year-old security guard told Reuters TV, echoing the apathy of many voters who intend to abstain.

Macron cast his vote early in the morning in the seaside resort of Le Touquet before flying to a ceremony outside Paris to mark the anniversary of Charles de Gaulle's 1940 appeal for French resistance to Nazi Germany's occupation.

Polls show Macron is on course to win the biggest parliamentary majority since de Gaulle's own conservatives in 1968.

Set to change the face of modern French politics

The new assembly is due to be transformed with a new generation of lawmakers – younger, more female and more ethnically diverse – winning seats in the afterglow of Macron's success in presidential elections last month.

The scale of the change is set to be so significant that some observers have compared the overhaul to 1958, the start of the present presidential system, or even the post-war rebirth of French democracy in 1945.

It is also entirely unexpected: Macron was unknown three years ago and initially given little chance of emerging as president. However, he and his 15-month-old Republic on the Move (REM) party have tapped into a widespread desire for change.

"It's like a science fiction movie for me," REM candidate Beatrice Failles, a weapons inspector, writer and community activist, told AFP this week during campaigning in Paris.

REM is forecast to win between 400 and 470 seats in the 577-strong parliament, one of the biggest majorities post-war that would give pro-EU centrist Macron a free hand to implement his business-friendly programme.

Sunday's voting is the decisive second round of the election after the first round of voting last weekend which was topped by REM.

If confirmed, the victory will come at the expense of France's traditional parties, the right-wing Republicans and Socialists, but also the far-right National Front which faces major disappointment.

The Socialists are set to be the biggest victim of voters' desire to reject establishment figures associated with years of high unemployment, terror attacks and lost national confidence.

Pollsters predict the party will see its strength in parliament fall from nearly 300 seats to around 20 after their five years in power under president Francois Hollande.

A weak mandate?

The main concern for observers and critics is the likely absence of any political counterweight to Macron, leading some to forecast that opposition could be led through street protests.

"Desperately seeking an opposition," said the front page of Le Parisien newspaper on Saturday.

Some warn the low turnout suggests Macron's mandate is not as strong as he thinks.

"Go and vote!" Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Thursday. "It's the same message here as everywhere else: no one should abstain. In France voting is not obligatory... it is a right and a responsibility."

In the first round, REM won 32 percent of the total number of votes cast, but this represented only about 15 percent of the total number of registered voters.

Around half of REM's candidates are virtual unknowns drawn from diverse fields of academia, business or local activism. They include a mathematician, a bullfighter and a former Rwandan orphan.

"You could take a goat and give it Macron's endorsement and it would have a good chance of being elected," political analyst Christophe Barbier joked recently.

In some areas of Paris, the comment has led to a guerrilla campaign to replace the photographs of REM candidates with a picture of a goat on their posters outside voting stations.

The other half of Macron's loyalists are a mix of centrists and moderate left- and right-wing politicians drawn from established parties including ally MoDem.

Le Pen in Henin-Beaumont

Other key battles on Sunday include far-right leader Marine Le Pen's attempt to win her first seat in parliament from the northeastern former coal mining town of Henin-Beaumont.

Her victory would be a rare bright spot for her nationalist and anti-EU party which was once hoping to emerge as the principal opposition to Macron in parliament.

The firebrand and influential leader of new far-left party France Unbowed, Jean-Luc Melenchon, is also seeking a seat from the southern port of Marseille.

Macron's promise

Macron's programme includes radical labour market reforms, measures to deepen European integration and an overhaul of the social security system.

He has vowed to take on French unions by creating a system of "flexi-security" inspired by Scandinavian countries which combine a solid state-funded safety net with company-friendly legislation.

His confident start at home, where he has concentrated on trying to restore the lost prestige of the president, and his decisive action on the international stage has led to a host of positive headlines.

The European front cover of The Economist magazine this week asks whether Macron is "Europe's saviour" and depicts him walking on water.