After one month in office, French President Emmanuel Macron is poised to consolidate his victory by taking a clear majority in the National Assembly elections, which begin Sunday.
Polling shows a strong lead for Macron's En Marche! movement, founded just a year ago and fielding candidates — many of them young and political newcomers — in 525 of 577 districts, of which the new party is expected to win as many as 400 seats. The only other party predicted to take more than 100 seats are the conservative Republicans, while the Socialists, far-right National Front, and far-left Left Party collect, at most, a few dozen.
Like the presidential race, the parliamentary election for the lower house (members of the upper house, the Senate, are not chosen by direct popular vote) is a two-stage runoff. A second round of voting on Sunday, June 18, will take place for all races that do not have an outright winner in the first ballot.