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FRENCH President Francois Hollande's Socialists and allies came outon top in first-round parliamentary elections Sunday, poised tosecure the majority needed to push through tax-and-spend reforms. The election also saw a surge in support for Marine Le Pen 's far-right National Front, which wants to ditch the euro andbattle against what she calls the "Islamisation" of France. The Socialists, Greens and allies won around 46 per cent of thevote, ahead of the 34 per cent for ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy 's right-wing UMP party and its allies, the final results releasedby the interior ministry showed. Pollsters TNS Sofres, IPOs and OpinonWay agreed that the Socialists and closeallies might win between 283-329 seats in the 577-seat NationalAssembly or potentially as many as 329 and could hold power in theparliament without relying of the votes of the Greens or theanti-capitalist Left Front. Hollande defeated Sarkozy in last month's presidential election andwants voters to give him a strong mandate to enact reforms asFrance battles Europe's crippling debt crisis, rising joblessnessand a stagnant economy. If next week's second round confirms Sunday's results, it willboost his status in Europe as champion of the movement away fromGerman-led fixation on austerity towards growth, which he favoursas the solution to the economic crisis. The daily Les Echos on Monday summed up the media mood on theelections, talking of a "measured support for the president." A month after Hollande's victory at the polls, "there was no redwave, and there was an unprecedented failure to mobilise voters,"it added. Nationwide turnout was put at 57 per cent, a record low for a firstround of legislative elections. However Hollande's Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, re-elected inthe first round voting in the Loire-Atlantique region, hailed theresults and urged voters to return to the polls in numbers for thesecond round to hand a "large, solid and coherent majority" for theSocialist party and its allies. "Change is going to be around for a while," he said, echoing theSocialists' presidential election slogan. The National Front won 13.6 per cent of the votes, far above the4.0 per cent it achieved in the last parliamentary election in2007. But under France's first-past-the-post system, that would at bestgive it only three parliamentary seats and possibly none at all. The Communist-backed Left Front, headed by firebrandanti-capitalist Jean-Luc Melenchon, won 6.9 per cent of the votes. The night marked a personal defeat for Melenchon who took Le Penhead-on in a bitter battle in a rundown former mining constituencynear the northern city of Lille. "It's normal to be disappointed but we must not be defeated,"Melenchon said as he bowed out, while Le Pen claimed her victorymeant her party was now France's third political power. "Given the abstention rate and a profoundly anti-democraticelectoral system that has for 25 years deprived millions of votersof MPs, we confirm our position tonight as France's third politicalforce," Le Pen said. Although the party has not won a seat in parliament since 1986, LePen is seeking to build on her strong showing in the presidentialvote and cement her party's place in national politics. Melenchon won 11 per cent of votes in the April-May presidentialvote that was won by Hollande, while Le Pen won almost 18 per centof votes. Centrist leader Francois Bayrou meanwhile appeared set to lose hisseat in the southwest after his left and right-wing rivals beat himin the first round. Hollande has pledged to hire an extra 60,000 new teachers and tohit top earners with a 50-percent tax rate on some of their income. The Socialists took control of the upper house of parliament, theSenate, last year. Ayrault's interim government has taken a series of popular steps inthe wake of Hollande's presidential victory in the May 6 run-off. He has cut ministers' salaries by 30 per cent, vowed to reduceexecutive pay at state-owned companies and lowered the retirementage from 62 to 60 for some workers. But the UMP has hit back with warnings that the Socialists arepreparing huge tax hikes to pay for what the right says is afiscally irresponsible spending programme for Europe'ssecond-biggest economy. UMP leader Jean-Francois Cope said the Socialists were readying"the biggest-ever tightening of the screws on the middle class". The economic backdrop is bleak for whoever wins the parliamentaryvote: unemployment is at 10 per cent, growth has stalled and the eurozone crisis haslurched back into the foreground. More than 6,500 candidates competed in Sunday's vote, which takesplace over two rounds under a constituency-based simple majoritysystem. If no candidate wins more than 50 per cent in the first round, anycontender who scores more than 12.5 per cent of the vote can stayin the race for the second round. I am an expert from aluminum-slidingdoors.com, while we provides the quality product, such as DIY Wardrobe Closet Manufacturer , China Bypass Sliding Door, Side Hinged Doors,and more.
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