Hollande Bolstered as Socialists Win French Parliament Control
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French President Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party and its allies won an absolute majority in the National Assembly, exit polls showed, paving the way for them to pass legislation without the aid of other members of parliament.
The Socialist bloc won 314 out of the 577 seats, pollster CSA said, with 289 needed for a majority. Former President Nicolas Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement party and its allies have 228 seats, CSA said, and the anti-euro National Front won two seats. Turnout in the second and decisive round of legislative elections yesterday was 56 percent.