PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron needs 289 seats in the National Assembly to maintain his outright majority

Macron beat the far right to retain the presidency in April but, less than two months on, it is the left that is threatening his hold on power.

French voters are deciding who will control the National Assembly. If the president loses his outright majority, he could struggle to push through reforms.

Far-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon's left-green alliance finished neck and neck with the centrist Macron coalition in the first round a week ago.

They call themselves Nupes, which stands for New Ecological and Social Popular Union, and the polls suggest they could stop the president winning the 289 seats he needs for an outright majority.

The president's alliance, Ensemble, portrays them as a "marriage of convenience" of Communists, Socialists, far-left Mélenchonists and Greens.

Turnout after four hours of voting was 18.99% - up on last Sunday — and all the party leaders had voted by lunchtime.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who voted in Marseille, has repeatedly said he wants to be prime minister

Nupes have galvanized voters with a promise to fight spiraling prices, bring down the retirement age and tackle climate change.

Green leaders and many green voters back them, accusing President Macron of doing little in the past five years.

Sunday's second round is almost entirely made up of run-off duels between two candidates, and almost half involve the two big alliances.

Several ministers in the Macron government are battling to keep their seats and hold on to their jobs, and two of the toughest fights feature Europe Minister Clément Beaune and Green Transition Minister Amélie de Montchalin.

An early casualty for the government came on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, where a secretary of state, Justine Benin, lost her seat and will have to resign.

Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire joined the campaign trail to help Amélie de Montchalin ahead of the vote

Without an outright majority of 289 seats, Macron will need the support of other parties to push through his big-ticket reforms, such as raising the retirement age, cutting taxes and reforming benefits. Pollsters suggest Ensemble will win 255-305 seats and Nupes 140-200.

"They didn't think the left and Greens could get together — it would be chaos and catastrophe," Nupes spokesman Ian Brossat told a rally at the end of the campaign.

"But the chaos today is economic, with food prices going up. We've got 10 million people in poverty."

During his fight for the presidency, Macron rallied voters across the spectrum by presenting his main rival Marine Le Pen as an extremist.

With mainstream parties joining the Mélenchon alliance it has become harder to do that. President Macron has appealed to voters to give him a solid majority in the "superior interest of the nation", while Russia's war rages at the gates of Europe.

Former Marxist Mélenchon has long wanted France to leave NATO but says that is now not a priority. However, he remains controversial, tweeting that "the police kill" and promising to naturalize Wikileaks founder Julian Assange as French if he wins the election.

Macron's recently appointed prime minister Elisabeth Borne has painted Mélenchon's policies as dangerous because he is "ambiguous on republican values".

First-time voter Clara said she had backed Macron against the far right in April, but this time preferred the left-green alliance.

Europe Minister Clément Beaune is fighting to save his political career in one of the Paris seats, against an experienced LGBT rights lawyer Caroline Mécary.

Both candidates visited the Aligre market near the Gare de Lyon several times in the run-up to Sunday's vote, says market vendor Ichem. "People can't afford much now; they buy less than before," he observes.

Visiting the market, Grégoire said he backed the president because he did not want to return to the days of "cohabitation", when president and government came from different parties: "Yes it used to work before but they weren't good years."

Jean-Baptiste agreed the president needed a strong mandate: "Without a majority he won't be able to do anything he needs to do."

But Christine believed handing the president an absolute majority was bad for democracy. She backed Emmanuel Macron to keep the far right from the Élysée Palace, but felt having another party in government was good for debate. — BBC