Marine Le Pen of the National Rally is celebrating a major victory as French President Emmanuel Macron’s alliance lost its majority in the French parliament – Macron winning just 245 seats in the 577-member chamber in elections according to full results published by the interior ministry early Monday.
The results mean that Macron’s Together alliance is well short of the 289 seats needed for an overall majority. The NUPES left-wing coalition won 135 seats and the far-right National Rally 89 seats.
National Rally’s seats will turn them into a serious parliamentary group capable of challenging the government at every opportunity, says the Daily Mail. Previously they only had eight seats.
Key ministers in the government of President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday admitted that the ruling coalition’s performance in parliamentary elections was ‘disappointing’ after projections showed it had lost its majority.
The results are ‘far from what we hoped’, Budget Minister Gabriel Attal said on the TF1 channel, while Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti told BFM television: ‘We’re in first place but it’s a first place that is obviously disappointing,’ according to the Daily Mail.
A triumphant Marine Le Pen heralded a ‘new chapter’ in French politics and said her new parliamentary group would represent ‘all patriots who wish to defend our country against collapse’.
To cries of ‘Marine! Marine! Marine!’, the 53-year-old spoke to delirious supporters in her home constituency of Henin-Beaumount, in northern France.
‘Here we are at the end of a long electoral journey, and the people have spoken,’ said Ms Le Pen.
‘We have overcome obstacles such as the electoral system. The people have given us the great power of creating a parliamentary group in the National Assembly. This is a great chapter in the history of our political family.
‘We welcome all patriots who wish to defend our country against collapse.’
Image: Marine Le Pen (via Twitter)
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