NYT: French Vote Raises Socialists’ Hopes for Majority in Parliament
President François Hollande’s Socialist Party and its allies appeared to be on course for a majority in the French National Assembly in the first round of voting for the lower house, according to nearly complete results published on Monday by the Interior Ministry. Mr. Hollande’s Socialist Party and its pro-European allies, including the Greens, appear sure to win more than the 289 votes required for a working majority in the 577-seat National Assembly, or lower house of Parliament.
Mr. Hollande, who won a narrow victory over Nicolas Sarkozy on May 6, needs a majority in the legislature to ensure retaining a Socialist prime minister and to more easily pass legislation to keep his campaign promises, which include an increase in the minimum wage and tax increases on the wealthy and corporations. The current government is temporary, dependent on the final results of the legislative elections.
The elections are also critical for the U.M.P. (Sarkozy's center right party) and other more right-wing parties that are fighting to define the opposition, including the far-right National Front led by Marine Le Pen. The National Front got about 13.6 percent of the vote, the third-largest of any party, but given the runoff system and the U.M.P.’s refusal to support National Front candidates, Ms. Le Pen’s party is likely to get only a few seats. She appears to have failed, however, in her aim to undermine the U.M.P. and refashion the political right in France.
Ms. Le Pen herself fared very well in her constituency around the northern city of Hénin-Beaumont, coming in first with more than 42 percent of the vote. But she may lose in the second round to her Socialist rival, who got the backing Sunday of the third-place candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a far-left rabble-rouser who ran for president and sought to defeat Ms. Le Pen.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/world/europe/socialists-fare-well-in-french-parliamentary-elections.html
So far so good. Good luck to the Socialists in the second round of parliamentary elections. And may Le Pen lose her contest against Mélenchon.
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