The French parliamentary elections' first round on Sunday put Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Ensemble group barely ahead of the leftist coalition NUPES under firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon – a disappointing result for the freshly re-elected president. But Macron’s centrist alliance is expected to get a second-round boost as swing voters rally to moderates – while a relatively strong performance for France’s conservatives gives them a chance to assure Macron a National Assembly majority.
For two decades French parliamentary elections – or the législatives, as they are called in France – have seen the newly (re)elected president sail to a National Assembly majority on the back of their victory in the race for the Élysée Palace. At the outset, observers expected this month’s polls to conform to type.
