Large majority for Macron in French parliament

En Marche! is set to win comfortably in parliamentary elections, allowing Emmanuel Macron to fulfill his campaign pledges.

President Emmanuel Macron's fledgling En Marche! party has secured a large majority in parliamentary elections.

The 39-year-old's centrist movement and its allies won 350 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly on Sunday.

The result is far beyond the 289 seats required for an absolute majority.

Mr Macron had been hoping for such a win to strengthen his hand and have enough support to implement a business-friendly, pro-EU programme in government.

The President wants to tackle stubbornly high unemployment rates by loosening labour laws, but he runs the risk of triggering mass protests from workers.

During his campaign, Mr Macron also vowed to clean up politics after a slew of corruption and tax scandals, and unveil new anti-terror legislation to replace the state of emergency imposed after the Paris attacks of November 2015.

The conservative Republicans and its allies hung on to 131 seats, down from over 200 in the last parliament.

It has been a bad night for the Socialists, which shed more than 250 seats, winning just 29.

The party, which was in power for five years under former president Francois Hollande, has been associated with years of high unemployment, low national confidence and social unrest.

Marine Le Pen, Mr Macron's far-right rival in the final round of the presidential election, has won a seat in parliament for the first time.

The National Front party she leads won eight seats in total.