Le Pen's National Front Slips in First Votes of the Macron Era

(Bloomberg) -- Marine Le Pen’s National Front party slumped in special elections for two legislative seats that were the first electoral contests since President Emmanuel Macron and his party took power last June.

The far-right party’s vote fell to 7.5 percent in Belfort, eastern France, Sunday from 17.5 percent in the first round of legislative elections last June, according to Agence France-Presse. In Val d’Oise near Paris, the National Front’s score fell to 10 percent from 15 percent, AFP said.

The results give an indication of how much the political landscape in France has changed from a year ago, when Le Pen was leading the Front to its best-ever result in a presidential election with 21 percent in the first round. Since then the party has splintered and backed away from its policy of pulling France out of Europe’s common currency.

The ballots were triggered by judges declaring last year’s results invalid. In both cases the incumbents -- one running for Macron’s The Republic on the Move party and the other for the right-wing Republicans -- led on low voter turnout.

In Belfort the Republican candidate won 39 percent of the vote ahead of a MoDem candidate, part of an alliance with Macron’s party, who got 27 percent. In Val d’Oise, Macron’s party won 29 percent of the vote, compared with 24 percent for the Republican rival. The two leading candidates in each constituency go through to a run-off next Sunday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Deen in Paris at markdeen@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Ben Sills, Kevin Costelloe

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