UPDATE - France: Macron set for landslide majority in parliament

UPDATES WITH NEW EXIT POLLS PROJECTIONS, STATEMENTS OF FRENCH PM AND OTHER FRENCH POLITICIANS

By Hajer M'tiri

PARIS (AA) - French President Emmanuel Macron's La Republique En Marche (LREM) political movement and its allies are projected to secure a landslide absolute majority in legislative elections with 32.6 percent of the votes, according to projections after polls closed in this first round on Sunday.

According to exit polls, Macron's LREM is seen getting over 400 of the National Assembly's 577 seats, far more than the 289 necessary for an absolute majority.

The conservative Republicans and their allies are predicted to win between 70-110 seats, the Socialist Party's coalition 20-30 and Jean-Luc Melenchon’s left-wing La France insoumise (Unbowed France) party and Communist party allies 8-18.

The victory of the LREM, a movement launched by Macron less than a year ago, is considered a slap to mainstream parties, such as the Socialist party, who received only 10 percent of total vote, which means losing 90 percent of its lawmakers.

Socialist Party leader Jean-Christophe Cambadelis, who was eliminated himself in Paris, called tonight's results "an unprecedented step back for the left" and the Socialists.

He said the massive majority Macron is projected to win in the National Assembly is "neither healthy nor desirable" and warned against "unanimity" in parliament.

The far-right National Front of recently defeated presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is predicted to return between one to five lawmakers.

Speaking from the far-right stronghold of Henin-Beaumont in northern France, Le Pen, trying for the fourth attempt to win a parliament seat, said she is way ahead in the constituency where she is running in, “more than 45 percent.”

She said her party could win several seats in next week’s second-round poll, and urged people to vote massively.

From seven to 12 seats will be claimed by other candidates.

- Record low turnout

Nevertheless, voter turnout has hit a historic low with abstention in the first round reaching 51.6 percent, the lowest since 1958, according to French Interior Ministry data.

In France’s last legislative elections, in 2012, turnout in the first round stood at 57.22 percent.

The Macron victory is the biggest majority seen in France since Charles de Gaulle’s landslide win in 1968. It would likely bring sweeping changes to France's political landscape.

Having an absolute majority at the National Assembly, France’s lower and more powerful house of parliament, will allow Macron to govern more at ease during his five-year terms.

- "France is back "

LREM party president Catherine Barbaroux thanked voters saying "their choice has a clear meaning: they want the action taken by Emmanuel Macron, since his election to the Presidency of the Republic, to be continued."

In a televised speech, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, said that despite the abstention, millions of French people gave their "confidence in the project of Emmanuel Macron."

"France is back. Since a month now the President of the Republic has been a symbol of confidence, willpower and audacity," the French PM said, adding: "Next Sunday, the National Assembly will embody the new face of our Republic."

During the first round, candidates who have gathered less than 12.5 percent of registered voters were eliminated.

The actual number of seats will be determined in the run-off scheduled to take place next Sunday, June 18.

The Senate, the upper house, will be elected by an electoral college Sept. 24.