Socialists sweep French Parliament

PARIS

French Socialist Party supporters react to the results of the first round of the legislative elections. In the second round Hollande wins the clear majority he needs. AP photo

France’s Socialists won control of Parliament on June 17, handing President François Hollande the clear majority he needs to push through his tax-and-spend agenda to battle the eurozone debt crisis.

After Hollande’s victory in the presidential election last month, the Socialists – who already dominated the Senate – took control of the National Assembly by winning 314 out of the house’s 577 seats.

Symbolic victory for Le Pen
Former President Nicolas Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and its allies won 229 seats, the Socialist-allied Greens 17 seats and the Left Front 10. The far-right National Front was set to return to Parliament for the first time since 1998 after winning two seats in the south of the country, although party leader Marine Le Pen lost her own bid for a seat.

Royal beaten
Her 22-year-old niece, Marion Marechal Le Pen, granddaughter of the anti-immigrant party’s founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, was elected in the Vaucluse region. Valerie Boyer, who played a leading role in bringing a draft law about the Armenian genocide allegations before the Parliament, was also elected while Hollande’s ex-partner, the former Socialist presidential contender Segolene Royal, was beaten by a dissident Socialist candidate.

Compiled from AFP and Reuters stories by the Daily News staff.