Parliamentary election: landslide victory for Macron, small wins for other parties

Record ID: 896137

  • Title: Parliamentary election: landslide victory for Macron, small wins for other parties
  • Date: 19th June 2017
  • Summary: ABBEVILLE, FRANCE (JUNE 14, 2017) (REUTERS) TOWN SQUARE WITH HARD-LEFT ACTIVIST FRANCOIS RUFFIN TALKING TO JOURNALIST RUFFIN, JOURNALIST VANESSA LAMARRE AND PARLIAMENTARY LOSER AGAINST RUFFIN, NICOLAS DUMONT, IN TENT
  • Embargoed: 3rd July 2017 08:06
  • Keywords: Manuel Valls Typhanie Degois parliamentary election Cedric Villani National Assembly Emmanuel Macron Francois Ruffin Bruno Le Maire Republic On The Move Mounir Mahjoubi
  • Location: PARIS, LES BLEURONS, EVREUX, ORSAY, ALBENS, AIX-LES-BAINS & ABBEVILLE, FRANCE
  • City: PARIS, LES BLEURONS, EVREUX, ORSAY, ALBENS, AIX-LES-BAINS & ABBEVILLE, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
  • Reuters ID: LVA00B6LY09XJ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: President Emmanuel Macron won a commanding majority in France's parliamentary election on Sunday, sweeping aside traditional parties and redrawing France's political landscape, humiliating the Socialist and conservative parties that alternated in power for decades until Macron's election in May.
    Six members of Macron's cabinet were re-elected as MPs in their constituencies, meaning they are allowed to keep their posts. A loss would have obliged them to resign.
    This included economy minister Bruno Le Maire, goverment spokesman Christophe Castaner, and territorial cohesion minister Richard Ferrand, all with just over half of votes.
    Minister of overseas departments Annick Girardin, secretary of state in charge of digital affairs Mounir Mahjoubi, and minister for European affairs Marielle de Sarnez also gained seats in parliament.
    Le Maire, a former minister under ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy and a candidate for the right-wing primaries, turned his back on The Republicans to join Macron's government after promising to end politics' left-right divide.
    He won in Normandy against National Front opponent Fabienne Delacour.
    Top mathematician Cedric Villani's career took an unexpected turn when the winner of the 2010 Fields Medal -- math's Nobel Prize -- decided to swap equations for politics.
    A newcomer to politics, newly-elected MP Villani said he hoped he would be able bring a fresh eye to issues impacting his town of Orsay, just southwest of Paris, and to help his country emerge from "old sterile debates". His win is emblematic of the new political landscape which has allowed him to thrive.
    "The Republic on the Move" MP Mounir Mahjoubi was aged four when his Socialist opponent in the parliamentary elections, Jean-Christophe Cambadelis, was first elected a Paris lawmaker three decades ago.
    The 33-year-old son of Moroccan immigrants has never held elected office and built his reputation as a tech wiz, after founding several start-ups and working for digital affairs in Francois Hollande's government.
    Mahjoubi eventually won a run-off against a far-left candidate in a northeast Paris constituency.
    The youngest candidate of Macron's party who ran in the parliamentary elections is 24-year-old Typhanie Degois, who has now become France's youngest lawmaker after her win in Sunday's second round of voting.
    Degois, a law student in Motz, beat veteran conservative politician Dominique Dord, a mayor who has served in parliament.
    One rare win by the left was secured by former Prime Minister Manuel Valls, but his far-left opponent has alleged irregularities and is contesting the results.
    New MP Francois Ruffin is a journalist and activist in Amiens, whose award-winning documentary film "Merci Patron!" ("Thanks boss!") Took aim at France's richest man, the CEO of LVMH Bernard Arnault.
    He won over locally-popular opponent, the mayor of Abbeville Nicolas Dumon - a former member of the Socialist party and convert to Macron's Republic on the Move party.
    Supported by the communists, the greens, and far-left former presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, Ruffin presented himself as the workers' champion locked in a David-and-Goliath struggle with an economically liberal president cashing in on his post-election popularity.
    The high abstention rate in both rounds of parliamentary elections underlines that Macron will have to tread carefully with reforms in a country with muscular trade unions and a history of street protests that have forced many a past government to dilute new legislation.
    Nevertheless, the scale of victory gives the president, a pro-European Union centrist, a strong platform from which to make good on campaign promises to revive France's fortunes by cleaning up politics and relaxing regulations that investors say shackle the euro zone's second-biggest economy.
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