Macron set to lose coalition majority in French parliament

French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist coalition is projected to lose its majority in the country’s lower Parliament, according to multiple reports.

Projections on Sunday showed that Macron’s coalition was likely to win roughly 240 seats, almost 50 shy of a majority in the 577-seat National Assembly, according to The Washington Post, which cited projections from France’s TF1 television channel.

Nouvelle Union Populaire Écologique et Sociale (NUPES), which is an alliance of left-wing parties, was expected to win 190 seats at most, the The New York Times reported.

The results mark a major blow to Macron as the the first time in two decades that a newly elected president has not seized a majority bloc in the National Assembly, according to the Times.

As of 5 p.m. local time, voter turnout in the election was just over 38 percent. Sunday’s election, which marked a second round, was slightly down from the same point in the first round, which saw record low in terms of turnout, France 24 reported.

Macron’s opponent Marine Le Pen, a well-known right-wing populist, had one of the best performances of a French candidate.

Macron was reelected in April but since then, he has garnered criticism after suggesting that Russia should not be humiliated in the war against Ukraine. 

“We must not humiliate Russia so that the day when the fighting stops we can build an exit ramp through diplomatic means,” Macron said at the time during an interview with a local paper. “I am convinced that it is France’s role to be a mediating power.”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared to reference Macron’s words in a later speech, saying, “The Russian army can stop burning churches. The Russian army can stop destroying cities. The Russian army can stop killing children. If the same person in Moscow just gives such an order. And the fact that there is still no such order is an obvious humiliation for the whole world.”