In France, President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday called a snap election for June 30, following major losses in EU elections to the far-right National Rally party.
President Emmanuel Macron: “After having proceeded with the consultations as provided in Article 12 of our Constitution, I decided to give back to you the choice for the future of our Parliament with a vote. And so, I am dissolving tonight our National Assembly.”
Marine Le Pen’s far-right RN party won over 30% of the vote in preliminary tallies — more than twice as many votes as Macron. The RN announced 28-year-old Jordan Bardella as its candidate for prime minister.
The far right made gains elsewhere, including in Italy, Austria and Germany, where the extreme-right Alternative for Germany gained six seats and placed second behind the Christian Democrats. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats placed third with just 14 percent of the vote. Despite the boost for hard-right groups, centrist parties will still hold an outright majority in the 720-seat European Parliament. Nationalist, anti-immigrant groups are expected to control 130 seats.