Macron party wins massive majority in French parliament

French President Emmanuel Macron's centrist party won a massive majority in parliamentary elections on Sunday with early projections showed, dominating the country's traditional forces in a dramatic re-drawing of the political map.

RFI

Macron's year-old Republic on the Move (REM) and their allies were set to win between 355 and 425 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, according to partial results after the second round of an election in which many high-profile figures were thrown out.

The result, if confirmed, would give 39-year-old Macron one of France's biggest post-war majorities, strengthening his hand in implementing his business-friendly, pro-EU programme.

But turnout was estimated to be extremely low, at around 44 percent, giving his critics grounds to claim he has no groundswell of support.

The assembly is set to be transformed with a new generation of lawmakers -- younger, more ethnically diverse and with far more women than the outgoing parliament.

The scale of the change is forecast to be so large 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.