Macron may lose control if Mélenchon coalition rises in Parliament
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The French President may be in trouble if he is unable to acquire absolute majority in the second round of elections.
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The French left is putting pressure on Macron, with the first round's result suggesting a very close race.
As the French President attempts to hold on to his parliamentary majority, a new alliance of the French left, led by Melenchon, is putting pressure on the President.
Macron's party may end up losing dozens of seats in France's national assembly in the second round of the elections next Sunday.
“A few months ago, there were TV debates about whether the left was dead and finished,” said Clémentine Autain, who is likely to win re-election in Seine-Saint-Denis outside Paris for the alliance known as the New Popular Ecological and Social Union or NUPES. “Frankly, this alliance is a success.”
It was now crucial, according to Autain, to try to push young people, and those on low incomes, to vote, amid France's record low voter turnout.
The first round scored the lowest voter turnout in the history of France's Fifth Republic at 47.5%. The lowest turnout that happened prior to this date was recorded in 2017, at 48.3%.
Macron's Renaissance ruling bloc Ensemble! and the left-wing coalition garnered almost the same result in the first round, with 25.7% and 25.6% respectively.
In third place was Marine Le Pen's National Rally, with 18.7% of the vote while Republicans came in fourth place with 10.4%.
Eric Zemmour's Reconquete party garnered 4.2% of the vote, and the remaining parties could not pass the 4% mark.
The far-right stands to win up to 40 seats, compared with the eight it had won back in 2017. Le Pen is in need of 15 seats to form a formal group in Parliament.
In order to secure absolute majority, Macron is in need of 289 seats in the 577-seat lower house. Polls predicted that the President's centrist bloc may take anywhere between 255 to 295 seats, which means his results are not guaranteed.
