French polling agencies are projecting that President Emmanuel Macron's new centrist party will have a large majority in the powerful lower house of parliament and a clear mandate to overhaul the way France works and does business.

The projections from Sunday's second-round legislative elections suggest that Mr Macron's Republic on the Move! party beat the traditional left and right parties that have led the National Assembly for decades.

The pollsters project that Mr Macron's candidates and their allies won as many as 360 seats in the 577-seat chamber.

That was less than some had expected after its crushing victory in last week's first-round vote.

President Macron wants to use his mandate to strip away some employment protections to encourage hiring and to toughen national security in the wake of recent terror attacks.