Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party received what one of its own MPs called a “slap in the face” in regional and department elections on Sunday, reports The Guardian.
The president and his government failed to mobilise supporters, with an estimated 68% of voters shunned the polling stations – an unprecedented rate of abstention. If there was any consolation for the ruling party it was that exit polls suggested Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally had failed to garner its expected support.
Early results indicated that the main winners were various centre-right parties, including the main opposition Les Républicains, who were supported by 29.3% of voters. National Rally polled 19.1% and the Socialist party 16.5%. Macron’s La République En Marche (LREM) was estimated to have won 10.9% of votes.
Aurore Bergé, an MP for LREM, said the result was a democratic “slap in the face”. “I’m not going to minimise what has happened,” Bergé told BFMTV.
In the Île de France, which includes Paris, the centre-right candidate Valérie Pécresse was in a strong position to retain control of the region.