Macron Not Guaranteed To Win Outright Parliament Majority, Estimates Show

French President Emmanuel Macron is not guaranteed to win an absolute majority in parliament, exit polls showed, after a new left-wing alliance made a strong showing in the first round of parliamentary elections on Sunday.

Macron's coalition bloc was expected to win between 270-310 parliament seats - with the mark for an outright majority set at 289 seats - on June 19, according to an Elabe projection showed, while the left was seen getting 170-220 seats, a big increase from 2017.

Initial projections by Elabe put the hard-left veteran Jean-Luc Melenchon's NUPES bloc neck-and-neck with Macron's Ensemble! alliance in the first round, with 26.20% and 25.8% respectively.

With the two-round system, which is applied to 577 constituencies across the country, the popular vote in the first round is not a good indication of who will eventually win a majority on June 19, when the second round is held.

"In view of this result, and the extraordinary opportunity it offers us and the destiny of the common homeland, I call on our people to defeat the disastrous politics of the majority, of Macron, next Sunday," Melenchon told supporters after the vote.

At stake is Macron's ability to pass his reform agenda, including a pension reform he says is essential to restore order to public finances. His opponents on the left are pushing to cut the pension age and launch a big spending drive.

Government insiders expected a relatively poor showing in Sunday's first round for Macron's coalition. Melenchon's bloc has capitalised on anger over the rising cost of living.

A record number of voters abstained, pollsters projected, with more than half of all registered voters staying away from polling stations on a hot, sunny Sunday.

SECOND ROUND

On Sunday, government ministers struck a humble tone.

"The projections look good, apparently, for NUPES," European affairs minister Clement Beaune said of the first round. "I don't deny the results, but we don't know exactly whose ahead."

Initial projections after the presidential election showed Macron was on course to get a majority in parliament. But the president has kept a low profile since the vote, taking two weeks to form a government and only rarely making appearances.

Meanwhile, Melenchon has successfully forged an alliance between his France Unbowed movement, the Socialists, and the Greens.

Projections now show Macron and his allies, including the new party of his former prime minister Edouard Philippe, could fall short of a majority of 289 by as many as 40 seats.

Some 14 of Macron's ministers are competing in local races and could lose their jobs if they fail to win a seat.

One cabinet member most at risk is Beaune, who is campaigning in an eastern Paris constituency. As a former adviser on matters such as Brexit, Beaune, 40, is a close ally of the president.

"That would be a painful loss," a government source said.

On the other side of the political spectrum, Marine Le Pen won over 55% of the votes in her constituency, but will have to run in a runoff because of rules on minimum turnout.