Socialists take French parliament with sweeping win

France's Socialists won control of parliament in a run-off vote today, handing President Francois Hollande the convincing majority needed to push through a tough tax-and-spend agenda, estimates said.

The Socialists' bloc obtained between 312 and 326 seats -- an absolute majority in the 577-seat National Assembly -- and so will not need to rely on the Greens or the far left, polling institutes Sofres and CSA said.

Hollande, who defeated right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy in a May presidential election, had urged voters to give him the MPs he needs to steer France through the eurozone crisis, rising unemployment and a faltering economy.

Sarkozy's UMP was slated to win between 212 and 234 seats, the Greens between 18 and 24 seats and the far-left Left Front between nine and 11, the polling institutes said.

Marine Le Pen's anti-immigrant and anti-EU National Front (FN), which scored well in the first round, was set to take between one and four seats, returning an MP to parliament for the first time since 1998.

With the French voting for the fourth time in eight weeks after electing their first Socialist president in 17 years, turnout was a record low for a second-round parliamentary vote at 56 per cent.

Already in control of the Senate and nearly all regional governments, the parliamentary majority gives the Socialists a free hand to implement reforms despite the right urging voters to check the left's power in the vote.