France is facing another decisive election, and once again, the party of Emmanuel Macron is predicted to win.
French voters are choosing their Parliament on June 18. Polls show the ruling Republic on the Move (LREM) party should score a landslide.
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe returned to the port city of Le Havre, where he was mayor for seven years, to cast his vote—presumably for his own party.
LREM plans major reforms, which will require a solid majority in Parliament.
Local voters are by and large happy with their old mayor’s new job.
“I’m very satisfied with my mayor Edouard Philippe and with our prime minister,” said one voter, named Ghislaine. “Now we have to see with time what will happen.”
LREM doesn’t appeal to just the young.
Arlette Potier, 68, was willing to give the new party a chance.
“When you begin something new, and I think LREM is really something new, it’s young, it’s diverse, I think it’s a good idea. It’s in step with the youth of today,” she said.
Philippe left the right-wing Republicans to join Emmanuel Macron’s LREM party. French voters rejected the traditional Republican and Socialist parties, tired or ‘business as usual,” and gave the presidency to Macron. Macron gave the prime minister’s job to Philippe.
Philippe was a centrist on the right, but still, not from the president’s party. By including someone nominally from “the opposition,” Macron made himself more attractive to disillusioned Centrist Republicans and also made it harder for Republicans to attack him.
Despite Macron’s efforts to excite voters tired of the old two-party system, turnout so far has been significantly lower than in the last two parliamentary elections, 2007 and 2012.
