Macron wins big in French elections

In what is likely to give the French President Emmanuel Macron unprecedented mandate for his policies, his party La République en Marche, has swept the parliamentary elections. The party along with its MoDem allies ended up winning over 300 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly.

What’s extraordinary about this achievement is that the party was only created a little over 15 months ago and may have completely transformed the face of French politics as a result of it.

A push towards centrist views

Macron was able to position the La République en Marche as a politically neutral party that boasts the values of neither the Left nor the Right. A centrist in every term, he is seen as pro European Union and pro business with a focus on economic reforms. As a result, parties that have traditionally boasted either strong Left or Right values took a heavy beating the second round of the elections.

The worst defeat was handed to the French Socialist Party, which was in power for half a decade, lost majority of their seats and is expected to hold only 34 of them. It wasn’t long before the leader of the party, Jean-Christophe Cambadélis resigned from his position. For now, the French Right, led by Les Républicains party and its allies is expected to have about 125 seats. That will be enough for them to become the opposition party but it is hardly enough to be a genuine threat to the policies introduced by en Marche in the future. For the first time since the time of Charles de Gaulle in 1958, has a party held such an overwhelming majority.

With over 300 seats, the President will not have to struggle to implement much of his agenda when it comes to French politics. This includes a possible overhaul of unemployment benefits as they exist in the country as well as the French Labour laws. During the campaign Macron had also promised that his government will cut down the number of public servants by 120,000 and introduce new pension schemes that are generous.

One of the most divisive political leaders in the region, Marine Le Pen, won a seat for the first time ever but her party underperformed to expectations. This is a far cry from a few months ago when her rise to national prominence had been touted as a rise in the “far Right” sentiments in Europe.

Low voter turnout

One of the key problems that plagued the parliamentary elections was the low voter turnout. It was down by 42% as compared to the elections that were held in 2012. Several of Macron’s critics and rivals including Le Pen have pointed out that this could mean that many of the citizens who didn’t agree with centrist policies simply did not turn up to the polling booths.

Assessment

After the subsequent victories in both the presidential and the parliamentary elections, Macron can now sit comfortably to work on the policies he would like to introduce to France. He will also emerge as a key player in the European Union especially with Brexit talks soon to commence. Additionally, this means that the French political landscape has completely changed and other parties have to factor that into their own agendas moving forward in order to ensure their own success.

However, it isn’t all good news for the youngest president in Europe. Many of whom who have won seats have do not have much (if any) experience in politics - this includes a former bullfighter and a mathematician who are all unknown and untested with the public. This could backfire on Macron’s fledgling presidency.  That said, if the election results are anything to bet on, then the public is ready to give new blood a chance to fix problems that have long existed in the system.