President Emmanuel Macron's party wins clear parliamentary majority

French President Emmanuel Macron's party has won a clear parliamentary majority and weeks after his own presidential victory, 

With nearly all votes counted, his La République en Marche, alongside its MoDem allies, won more than 300 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly. The party was formed just over a year ago, and half of its candidates have little or no political experience. 

The conservative Republicans and their allies could form a large opposition block, with 125-131 seats. But this figure is down from 200 seats in the last parliament. The second round of the parliamentary election was marked by weak voter turnout, estimated to be a record low of about 42%.The result has swept aside all of the mainstream parties and gives the 39-year-old president



a strong mandate in parliament to pursue his pro-EU, business-friendly reform plans.

The Socialists, who were in power for the past five years, alongside their partners, looked set to get only 41-49 seats - their lowest tally ever in parliamentary elections. Socialist leader Jean-Claude Cambadélis announced his retirement from post, and urged the left "to change everything, its form and its substance, its ideas and its organisation". 

FN leader Marine Le Pen, 48, President of the National Front which is a far-right political party in France has won a seat in parliament for the first time, representing Henin-Beaumont, a depressed former mining town in the north. But two of her top aides, including her deputy leader, were eliminated.