Macron party pledges big changes after poll victory
Print Edition
PRESIDENT Emmanuel Macron’s government yesterday promised to reshape France’s political landscape as final results showed he had won the commanding parliamentary majority he wanted to push through far-reaching pro-growth reforms.
Macron’s centrist Republic on the Move (LREM) party and its center-right Modem ally won 350 out of 577 seats in the lower house, after a record low turnout for a parliamentary ballot in the postwar Fifth Republic.
A government spokesman Christophe Castaner said the high abstention rate — more than half of voters stayed at home — was a failure for the political class and highlighted the need to change politics.
“The real victory wasn’t last night, it will be in five years’ time when we have really changed things,” Castaner said.
Though lower than forecast by pollsters, Macron’s majority swept aside France’s main traditional parties, humiliating the Socialist and conservative The Republicans party that had alternated in power for decades.
“Victory for the Center” read the headline of the left-leaning Liberation newspaper.
Castaner said Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and his government would resign later in the day and a new cabinet be formed in coming days. He said he believed Philippe would be reappointed premier.
Investors welcomed Macron’s win, with the gap between French and German bond yields holding near its tightest level in seven months.
“After the reforms, which we expect Macron to implement, France could turn into the strongest of all major economies in Europe in the next decade, outclassing a Germany that is resting on its laurels and a UK that (through Brexit) is impairing its long-term growth prospects,” said Holger Schmieding, chief economist at German bank Berenberg.
Macron wants to move quickly on relaxing labor regulations before overhauling France’s unwieldy pension system next year. During the presidential campaign he also promised to cut corporate tax to 25 percent from 33 percent and make a huge public investment in energy, vocational training and transport infrastructure.
Sunday’s high abstention rate means Macron will also have to tread carefully with reforms in a country with muscular trade unions and a history of street protests that have forced many a government to dilute new legislation.
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