French President Emmanuel Macron expects that his coalition “Together for the Republic” will be able to receive at least 150 mandates following the parliamentary elections, RMC radio station reported on Monday, citing sources.
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The total number of parliamentary seats in the French National Assembly (lower house of parliament) is 577. For a majority in parliament, a party needs 289 deputies.
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“The head of state… seemed still convinced of the possibility of winning 150 seats and finding allies on the left and right to form a possible future coalition,” the radio station said.
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According to sources, Macron, together with his entourage, studied “electoral district after electoral district” on the map of France until three o’clock in the morning to estimate the number of mandates that his coalition could receive, RMC reports.
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Earlier, following the results of the first round of voting, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attalza said that the presidential coalition would withdraw its candidates from the second round of elections so that other candidates would have a chance to win over the candidates of the right-wing National Rally party.
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Prior to this, Attal also reported that Macron’s party would not nominate its candidates in about 60 constituencies, fearing disastrous results in the parliamentary elections.
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According to official data from the French Ministry of Internal Affairs, in the first round of parliamentary elections, the National Rally party, together with its allies from the Republican Party, won 33.15% of the votes, which will give it up to 270 of the 577 seats in parliament. The leftist New Popular Front coalition received 27.99%, while President Emmanuel Macron’s coalition came third with 20.04%. The second round of elections will take place on July 7.
