Le Pen: Voters 'Have All Cards in Hand' to Influence Parliamentary Election

French voters, who have everything at their disposal to alter the disproportionate results of the first round of parliamentary elections, should take to the polls in the next round as the country could otherwise end up having a parliament with no opposition to President Emmanuel Macron's La Republique en Marche, the National Front leader said.

PARIS (Sputnik) — Although the voter turnout for the first round of parliamentary elections on Sunday was less than 50 percent, REM came in the lead with 28.21 percent of the vote, while the FN only got 13.2 percent. Pollsters predict that REM, allied with the Democratic Movement (MoDem), could receive around 400 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly.

"We cannot allow such a perspective of the Assembly. Our country, in order to function in a democratic way, needs opposition, opposition which is not reduced to the bare bones… I protest against the fact that there will be no pluralism in our country," Marine Le Pen told Europe 1 radio broadcaster.

The FN leader called on French citizens to mobilize and vote in the second round of the elections, saying that they "have all cards in hand" to decrease the number of REM members in the new Parliament.

Le Pen also said she was skeptical about the initiative to introduce proportional representation in the parliament, which was mentioned by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Tuesday.

"I heard this promise made to the French people a thousand times, and it was never respected. What is this proportional representation, 5%, 10%? We need comprehensive proportional representation, we need to stop giving priority to a political movement which came first [in the election] in order to ensure stability," Le Pen said.

The second round of the parliamentary election will take place on Sunday, June 18.