国际英语资讯:France holds delayed municipal elections, Macrons party faces challenge_时事

国际英语资讯:France holds delayed municipal elections, Macrons party faces challenge

"Efforts by LREM to build grassroots support have fallen short, with most of its candidates failing to make it past the first round of voting on March 15," said state-owned international news television network France 24.

The good news was that Prime Minister Edouard Philippe finished first in the port city of Le Havre, winning 43.6 percent of the vote and consolidating his chance to win the runoff.

"Philippe, whose popularity has soared over his handling of the COVID-19 crisis, also faces a close fight to regain his mayor's seat in the port of Le Havre. A loss by Philippe would almost certainly force Macron into a broad reshuffle of his cabinet," France 24 said.

Opinion polls projected that the ruling party's candidates would fail to re-conquer any big city, which would be a blow to Macron's plan to build a local power base he needs to extend his stay at the Elysee Palace for another five-year term.

With 44 percent of vote intentions, the incumbent Socialist Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, had been viewed to be comfortably ahead of conservative rival Rachida Dati's 35 percent. Macron's official candidate and former health minister Agnes Buzyn was deemed to be in third place with 18 percent, a recent Elabe survey showed.

Candidates from the European Ecologists and the Greens (EELV) are expected to gain control of key cities, such as Lyon and Bordeaux, after a surge in the support they reported in the first round.