PARIS, June 16: The centre-right coalition supporting French President Jacques Chirac has won a landslide victory in Sunday’s second round of parliamentary elections.
According to early estimates by several research institutes, Chirac’s Union for a Presidential Majority (UMP) and its right-wing allies will have 385 to 399 of the National Assembly’s 577 seats, compared to only 178 to 193 for the left.
The results represent a net gain of about 140 seats for the right, with the newly formed UMP by itself having an absolute majority of at least 71 seats.
Such a commanding legislative superiority will enable Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Chirac to carry out a series of promised reforms, including an easing of the 35-hour workweek, a 5 per cent income tax cut, a decrease of corporate social charges and at least a partial privatization of the pensions system.—dpa
