PARIS — President François Hollande’s Socialist Party and its allies appeared to be on course Sunday night for a majority in the French National Assembly in the first round of voting for the lower house.
But final results will be clear only after another round of voting next Sunday, since few candidates got more than the 50 percent of the vote required to win their seats outright. Candidates winning more than 12.5 percent of registered voters go on to the runoff round.
The Socialist leader hopes to win a working majority of the 577 seats at stake with his own party and his pro-European allies, the Greens. Although the Socialists are expected to be the largest party in the Assembly, the initial results Sunday night provided him no certainty. He might in the end need the support of far-left parties that are more anti-European, which will complicate his efforts to work with Germany to strengthen the euro and promote growth.
Mr. Hollande, who won a narrow victory over Nicolas Sarkozy on May 6, needs a majority in the legislature to ensure a Socialist prime minister and to more easily pass legislation to keep his campaign promises, which include tax increases on the wealthy and corporations. The current government is temporary, dependent on the final results of the legislative elections.
Most analysts expect that the outcome next Sunday will be a majority for the Socialists, allowing them to avoid a “cohabitation” with a right-wing prime minister. The upper house, the Senate, already passed to the control of more liberal parties last year.
The current foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, a Socialist, said: “It’s a good result tonight,” but added, “We have to remain mobilized for the second round.”
The elections will also be critical for conservative parties that are fighting to define the opposition, including the center-right Union for a Popular Movement party of Mr. Sarkozy and the far right National Front led by Marine Le Pen. The National Front got about 14 percent of the vote, but given the runoff system and the UMP’s refusal to support National Front candidates, Ms. Le Pen’s party is likely to get only a few seats. She appears to have failed, however, in her aim to undermine the UMP and refashion the political right in France.
Ms. Le Pen herself fared very well in her constituency around the northern city of Hénin-Beaumont, coming in first with more than 42 percent of the vote. But she may lose in the second round to her Socialist rival, who got the backing Sunday of the third-place candidate who had been eliminated, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who ran for president on the far-left ticket.
Similar quandaries will face candidates in constituencies where the UMP and National Front candidate could collectively outpoll the Socialists, although UMP leaders have said they will not support any candidates from the National Front. A former Sarkozy minister, Nadine Morano, explicitly appealed on Sunday evening for the support of National Front voters in order to defeat the Socialist candidate, who placed first.
Turnout was at a record low, at about 57 percent of registered voters, with the abstention rate much higher than in May’s presidential election, when more than 80 percent voted.
The TNS-Sofres, CSA, Ipsos and IFOP polling agencies estimate that the Socialists and their allies won between 31 percent and 35 percent of the vote Sunday, while UMP candidates and their allies won 34 percent to 35 percent.
Other leftist parties that are expected to back Mr. Hollande won about 12 percent to 13 percent of the vote, the polling agencies estimated. The National Front was projected to win just under 14 percent of the vote.
Partial official results were in line with the projections Sunday night; final results of the first round are expected to be released sometime on Monday.
About two-thirds of the members of Mr. Hollande’s initial cabinet are running for seats; he has said that any minister who loses in the election will have to quit the cabinet. His prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, was elected outright in the first round, as was Mr. Fabius.