Macron's 'Dose of Proportional Representation' Good, Yet Insufficient Idea - MP

© REUTERS / Christian HartmannFrench President-elect Emmanuel Macron attends a ceremony at the Luxembourg Gardens to mark the abolition of slavery and to pay tribute to the victims of the slave trade, in Paris, France, May 10, 2017.
French President-elect Emmanuel Macron attends a ceremony at the Luxembourg Gardens to mark the abolition of slavery and to pay tribute to the victims of the slave trade, in Paris, France, May 10, 2017. - Sputnik International
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French President Emmanuel Macron's suggestion to add some elements of proportional representation to the French legislative election is a good, albeit meager step forward, Sebastien Chenu, a member of the National Front party with a seat in the National Assembly, told Sputnik, adding that a full transition to a new voting system would be better.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — During his speech before the French Parliament in Versailles on July 3, Macron proposed to have the parliament elected with "a dose of the proportional representation so that all preferences are represented there fairly."

"Proportional representation is today the only system that might allow us to revive the democracy in France. Two months ago, our movement [FN] under the leadership of Marine Le Pen reached the second tour of the presidential election and received about 35 percent of the votes, representing 11 million votes. Today, we only have eight lawmakers out of 577 and we do not have a group in the National Assembly… Thereby, for us, that little bit of proportional representation announced by Mr. Macron is a move in the right direction but is not enough," Chenu said.

The FN lawmaker stressed that the situation was insufficiently democratic and that his party would welcome a different voting system.

"This is why, we are in favor of the complete proportional representation, perhaps with a majority bonus system which would allow everyone to be represented in the National Assembly," Chenu explained.

French President Emmanuel Macron (R) spars with a boxing partner in Paris, France, June 24, 2017 - Sputnik International
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The lawmaker also said that Macron's other proposal, namely to reduce the number of lawmakers, corresponded with FN's opinion on the matter, pointing out that this had been part of Marine Le Pen's presidential program.

The legislative elections held in June resulted in a parliament where the presidential majority holds 350 seats, the right has 136 lawmakers and the left has 45, a drastic fall compared to a previous parliament composition. The FN improved on its previous result of two seats in the National Assembly, but a parliamentary group may only be formed by a minimum of 15 lawmakers. The groups benefit from additional speaking time and financial resources and carry more weight in legislative work than non-attached lawmakers.

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