FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron has lost his majority in the National Assembly after a number of MPs quit his party.
The loss of the 10 MPs mean Mr Macron has lost is majority in the National Assembly, which he has held since 2017.
From 295 members, the LREM group goes down to 285 – four less than the absolute majority, fixed at 289 seats.
Ministers have hit out at the defectors, and say they are defying Mr Macron’s appeals for national unity during the coronavirus health crisis.
Bruno Le Maire, the finance minister, said: “I regret that some people want to reopen the left-right divisions that we and the French people wanted to put behind us in 2017.”
The defection is another major blow to Mr Macron’s presidency, which has been marred by strikes and demonstrations by the yellow vest protestors.
At the beginning of the year thousands of people protested the President’s overhaul to the national pension system.
The proposals triggered a wave of strikes and demonstrations across France over several weeks.
But the health crisis led Mr Macron to suspend the measures, while his government focused on tackling the deadly virus.
His current approval ratings are fairly dismal, with only 35 percent approving the government’s performance in handling the coronavirus epidemic, which has killed over 28,000 people.
Following his government’s decision to ease the lockdown, a series of street demonstrations broke out.
On May 12, around 250 people demonstrated against police brutality in France, on the first day the country eased its lockdown measures
The protests took place around the municipality of Ile-Saint-Denis, in the Seine-Saint-Denis district, north east of Paris.
On Saturday May 23 the yellow vest movement also remerged in several cities, including Paris, Bordeaux, Montpellier and Lyon.
The demonstrations defied social distancing rules, which banned gatherings of more than 10 people in public places.
As a result, police broke up gatherings and groups of protestors.
Additonal reporting by Maria Ortega
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