France’s newly-elected lawmakers, most of them from President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party, are attending their first parliament session.
Macron’s 14-month-old Republic on the Move! party won 308 of the 577 seats in legislative elections earlier this month. His allies in Modem took 42 seats, giving the government a wide majority.
After Macron vigorously campaigned on a promise to renew France’s political landscape, other parties also made efforts to promote new faces.
Three-quarters of the lawmakers are starting their first term at the National Assembly and 38% are women — the highest proportion in France’s modern history.
They expect to get to work quickly tackling the government’s proposed law on expanding police powers and a labor reform making it easier to hire and fire.