President Emmanuel Macron's La Republique....>

FRANCE: President Emmanuel Macron's La Republique En Marche (LREM) group has

lost its majority in the National Assembly, the lower house of the French

Parliament, following the defection of 7 deputies.

- LREM now holds 288 of the 577 seats, one short of an overall majority.

- The defectors, all from the left of LREM, have formed the 'Ecology, Democracy,

Solidarity' group. They have stated that they will not sit as government or

opposition deputies, but will vote on an issue-by-issue basis.

- The defections will not cause any legislative difficulty for Macron's

administration, given that LREM can rely on the support of the 46 deputies from

the centrist MoDem group of perennial presidential candidate Francois Bayrou. 

- Nevertheless, losing seven seats on May 19 means Macron's group has lost 26

deputies since the 2017 election. Most have come from the left of Macron's

electoral alliance, that was initially set up as a body neither on the left nor

right of the political spectrum.