French President Emmanuel Macron on June 18 | Bertrand Guay/AFP via Getty Images France’s Emmanuel Macron seizes big majority in parliament New president’s centrist party trounces opponents in second round of election but record low turnout casts long shadow.

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron won a large majority in the lower house of parliament Sunday, freeing his hand to carry out an agenda that includes overhauling a rigid labor code.

An alliance led by Macron's centrist La République En Marche (LRM) party won 350 seats out of 577 in the National Assembly, well over the threshold for an absolute majority.

However, the victory fell short of forecasts that Macron's camp would claim as many as 460 seats and was also marred by a record-high abstention rate of 57.4 percent. In coming months, voters' relative lack of enthusiasm will provide fuel for opposition forces, such as resurgent far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, to claim Macron lacks the legitimacy to implement his policies.

"There is a strong majority tonight ... the French people want change but they're also vigilant and there is a challenge for us — a responsibility to make things change, " said Christophe Castaner, spokesman for the caretaker government Macron appointed after winning the presidential election last month.

"We may have let people think a bit too much that everything was settled in advance," he said, reflecting on the low turnout and the fact Macron's win was less overwhelming than predicted.

He added: "There is no victory tonight. The real victory will be in five years, when France will have changed."

Out with the old

Macron's main opposition in parliament will come from the conservative Les Républicains party and its allies, who together won 137 seats. But the conservatives are divided and demoralized, with one faction that wants to cooperate with Macron and another that aims to oppose him at every turn.

"The Right missed its rendezvous with the French people," said conservative former Budget Minister Valérie Pécresse. "This is the end of an era ... We need to rebuild everything from floor to ceiling."

After five years of deeply unpopular rule by Macron's predecessor, François Hollande, voters punished the ex-president's Socialist Party, which won just 29 seats with its allies claiming a further 15 — a world away from the more than 330 seats they held in the last legislature.

In a brief address, Socialist Party chief Jean-Christophe Cambadélis announced he would step down.

"Voters wanted to give a chance to the new president," said Cambadélis. "They didn't give his adversaries a chance."

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen won a seat in the French parliament for the first time, as did Louis Aliot and six other candidates from her National Front pary. But Florian Philippot, architect of the party's anti-euro stance, failed to win a seat, and the National Front fell well short of its aim of taking 15 seats.

Of all opposition groups, the one that fared best compared to expectations was Mélenchon’s France Unbowed movement. Together with the Communist Party, it won 27 seats.

New faces

Despite shadow cast by low turnout, the result is a powerful victory for Macron — not only because it grants him control over parliament and freedom to carry out reforms, but also because he has stocked its ranks with political novices who owe him for their seats.

Fresh faces include Cedric Villani, a celebrated mathematician seen as likely to win in Essonne, south of Paris and Lénaïck Adam, a 25-year-old first-timer from the French territory of Guyana. (Another eye-catching personality in Macron's ranks, former bullfighter Marie Sara was predicted to lose her race in the southern Gard region.)

The new president should have a pliant majority ready to carry out his reforms.

The newcomers are chasing out much of France's political class. Socialist presidential candidate Benoît Hamon and Cambadélis face years in the wilderness outside of parliament or the end of their political careers.

However, former Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls triumphed in a tight local contest to win re-election in southern Paris.

With so many new MPs under his banner, Macron is unlikely to face the sort of backbencher rebellion that plagued Hollande. The new president should have a pliant majority ready to carry out his reforms, such as his signature plan to overhaul rigid hiring and firing rules.

Other high-stakes votes in coming months are plans to write new investigatory powers — normally confined to a state of emergency — into regular law, new ethics rules for politicians, simplifying business paperwork, and overhauling a deeply indebted unemployment fund.

At every turn, opposition forces will be there to remind the president of low turnout and what they have already begun calling a "lack of democratic legitimacy."

This article has been updated with new information.