France awakens to an emboldened Le Pen after far-right gains

By SYLVIE CORBET and BARBARA SURK
Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — France has awakened to an ecstatic Marine Le Pen after her party’s far-right candidates for parliament sent shockwaves through the political establishment. They helped deny President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance an absolute majority. Le Pen’s National Rally party didn’t win the two rounds of voting in the parliamentary election which ended Sunday. But it secured more than 10 times the seats it won five years ago. It was only a couple of months ago that Le Pen lost the presidential election to Macron. But now it was her turn to gloat on Monday since she knows she can use the seats in the National Assembly to thwart Macron’s domestic agenda.