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PARIS, June 17-- The success of French President Emmanuel Macron's movement, the Republic on the Move (LREM), in the first round of legislative elections on June 11, is undeniable in terms of percentage of votes cast. All opinion polls predict a new record for abstention rates for the second round on Sunday. The debate on the causes and consequences of such low turnout has created concerns in France and raise questions about this way of voting, as well as the legitimacy of the future National Assembly. On June 11, more than one in two French voters stayed home, leading to the lowest turnout for the first round of legislative elections in the history of the 5th Republic. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the rate of abstention was at 51.29 percent, 8 percentage points higher than in 2017 (42.8 percent), and 29 percentage points higher than the first round of the presidential election (22.2 percent). Opinion polls are predicting a new record for the second round, after which the 577-seat National Assembly will be receive a complete makeover. According to an Odoxa poll for France Info, published Friday, 53 percent of potential voters plan not to go to the polls. If the victory of LREM, founded in April 2016 by then-candidate Macron, comes as a landslide, the "first party in France" will still be of abstention. "Even if LREM prepares to gain a large majority, it is a strong deformation of the reality of French society. In the end, only a small part of the electorate has voted for LREM, due to weak turnout," said Yves-Marie Cann, director of political studies at the Elabe-CSA polling institute. | 
