Emmanuel Macron continues to surprise. On Sunday, in the first round of the French legislative elections, his La République En Marche movement, created only six months ago, came out with 32 per cent of the vote, far ahead of the right-wing Les Républicains with 22 per cent. Marine Le Pen’s Front National took only 13 per cent, the same as Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise. While the two extremes, left and right, perfectly mirrored each other in their lacklustre performance, the Socialist Party was left for dead at 10 per cent.
When Macron was elected president in May, polls suggested that his movement might turn out to be the biggest party in the French Assembly, but would fall short of an overall majority. He is now heading to a thumping victory in the second round on Sunday, predicted to win anything up to 455 of the 577 seats of the national assembly, leaving only crumbs to his opponents.
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