French President Francois Hollande’s Socialists and their allies were headed for the absolute majority needed to push through tax-and-spend reforms after yesterday’s first round parliamentary vote, exit polls said.

The election also saw a surge in support for Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front, which wants to ditch the euro and battles against what she calls the “Islamisation” of France.

Estimates released by pollster CSA after voting ended put the Socialists and their Green allies at around 40 per cent, ahead of the 35-per cent score of ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing UMP party.

TNS Sofres, Ipsos and OpinonWay pollsters all agreed that the two parties would win at least 287 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly and possibly as many as 347, with potential allies in the anti-capitalist Left Front taking 13-20 seats.

Mr Hollande defeated Mr Sarkozy in last month’s presidential election and wants voters to give him a strong mandate to enact reforms as France battles Europe’s crippling debt crisis, rising joblessness and a stagnant economy.

If next week’s second round confirms yesterday’s results, it will boost his status in Europe as champion of the movement away from German-led fixation on austerity towards growth, which he favours as the solution to the economic crisis.

Mr Hollande’s Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault called for a “large, solid and coherent majority” for the Socialist party and its allies in the second round.

“Change is going to be around for a while,” he said, echoing the Socialists’ presidential election slogan.

The CSA poll gave the National Front more than 13 per cent, far above the four per cent it achieved in the last parliamentary election in 2007.