French President Jacques Chirac's conservatives will have an majority in government following the general election, initial indications show.
The results seems to allay fears that extreme-right National Front Party of Mr Jean-Marie Le Pen would emulate the success of April 21st in the presidential election and capture up to 20 per cent of the poll. It appears that the absolute maximum he can now achieve is 13 per cent, and the possibility of four out of over 600 seats in the National Assembly.
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French President Jacques Chirac casts his ballot in the first round of the French parliamentary elections, in Sarran, central France
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According to centre-right newspaper
Le Monde
this morning, the combined right, is set to take between 380 and 440 seats - or 43 per cent of the vote - in an Assemly that requires 289 seats for an absolute majority.
Mr Chirac’s UMP party, according to exit polls, will get 35 per cent of the vote after the second round of voting next week, which will, in efect, give him an absolute majority.
The combined left is expected to obtain close to 30 per cent, with the Socialist Party of former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin receiveing between 25 and 27 per cent of the vote.
However, in yesterday’s first round of voting, the level of abstentsion hit record levels, with 36 per cent of those entitled to vote staying away, surprising many analysts who expected a large anti-National Front turnout.
Even with such a low turnout, Mr Le Pen’s party has suffered a major setback with only 13 per cent of the vote. Mr Le Pen last night attributed the collapse in his vote as a direct result of an "understanding" between the the moderate right and left aimed at blocking any advance by the National Front.
Mr Le Pen accused the both blocks of manipulating the political system to "deprive millions of French people of their right to be represented in the National Assembly."
The parties on the Left were also badly damaged leading to a call for a "massive" turnout for the second round of voting next Sunday. Former Socialis Party finance minister, Mr Laurent Fabius, called for people to turn out to vote in order to "rebalance the National Assmebly [which is] faced with the risk of a concentration of power in the same hands", a situation which threatened "massive social upheaval".