French Socialists win absolute parliament majority ‎

PARIS, FRANCE – French President Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party has taken a solid majority in Sunday’s runoff parliamentary elections.

Partial polling results show the Socialists’ bloc taking up to 320 seats in the 577-member National Assembly, well above the 289 needed for a majority.

The conservative UMP party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy was expected to win at least 212 seats. The anti-immigration National Front party of Marine Le Pen, which placed third in the first round, took at least two seats.

Party leader Le Pen lost her own parliamentary race, by just 118 votes. But her niece, 22-year-old Marion Marechal-Le Pen won a seat for the party, which Le Pen called