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President Emmanuel Macron stunned France on Sunday when he called snap parliamentary elections after his centrist alliance was trounced by Marine Le Pen’s far-right movement in a European parliamentary vote.
Exit polls showed the Rassemblement National (RN) secured around 33 per cent of the vote compared to 15 per cent for the French president’s centrist alliance, a stinging blow to Macron.
“For me, who always considers that a Europe united, strong, independent is good for France, this is a situation which I cannot countenance,” he said. “I have decided to give you back the choice of our parliamentary future with a vote.”
The first round of the parliamentary elections will be held in just three weeks, on June 30, with a run-off on July 7.
The dissolution is an extraordinary gamble by the French leader who has already lost his parliamentary majority after winning a second term as president two years ago. His alliance could be crushed, potentially paving the way for a possible “cohabitation” with the far-right if they win a majority of seats.
Macron said he believed a vote was needed to calm the volatile debates in the French parliament and achieve clarity on the direction of the country. Elysée officials said he had been considering it for some time to address gridlock in parliament. His move comes after the RN had for months been calling for a poll.
François Bayrou, a centrist politician whose party is in alliance with Macron, said the president was aiming to “end the impasse” in politics by asking voters a simple question of “whether France really recognises itself in the proposals of the far-right”.
Le Pen celebrated the victory and hailed Macron’s response to it. “This shows that when the people vote, the people win,” she said in a victory speech. “I can only salute the president’s decision to call early elections . . . We are ready to exercise power if the French give us their backing.”
RN has 88 seats out of 577 in the National Assembly, making it the biggest opposition party. Macron’s centrist alliance has 249.
There have been two previous political cohabitations in France — where a president has to share power with a prime minister and government from an opposing party — since the Fifth Republic was founded in 1958.
In Sunday’s European parliament elections, the RN came in far ahead of all other parties in France. Macron’s centrist alliance came a distant second — its 15 per cent narrowly avoiding a humiliating third place behind the centre-left, who won some 14 per cent.
The margin of victory could lend huge momentum to Le Pen’s ambition to succeed Macron as president in 2027. The decision to call snap elections may be a high-stakes attempt to thwart her advance.
“This is a severe defeat for Macron given that he has been president for seven years and he has long said his goal is to combat the far-right,” said Bruno Cautrès, an academic and pollster at Sciences Po in Paris.
The loss came after Macron had argued that the future of the EU was at stake because of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, economic competition with the US and China, as well as the need to fight climate change — all topics on which he said the far-right could not be trusted.
Yet the message appeared not to have moved French voters, who have historically used European elections as protest vote against the incumbent president.
“Given that Emmanuel Macron has sought to position himself as the intellectual leader of Europe, the fact that French voters don’t follow him is problematic for him,” added Cautrès.
Early voting estimates showed the RN’s list, led by the charismatic 28-year-old party chief Jordan Bardella, had won almost as many votes as the combined total of Macron’s alliance, led by a little-known MEP Valerie Hayer, and the traditional parties of the centre-right and centre-left.
“In according more than 30 per cent of their votes to us, the French have delivered their verdict and marked the determination of our country to change the direction of the EU,” said Bardella in a speech from his campaign headquarters. “This is only the beginning.”
The results show the rising popularity of the RN since 2019 when they won 23.3 per cent of the vote in the last European elections, coming in only slightly ahead of Macron’s list which took 22.4 per cent.
Bardella’s social media savvy and polished messaging has broadened their appeal with slices of the electorate, such as white-collar workers and retirees, who had historically rejected the RN as too radical.
In addition to the RN’s big win, another far-right party, Reconquête, was estimated to have won around 6 per cent of the vote.
Additional reporting by Adrienne Klasa
How will the European parliamentary elections change the EU? Join Ben Hall, Europe editor, and colleagues in Paris, Rome, Brussels and Germany for a subscriber webinar on June 12. Register now and put your questions to our panel at ft.com/euwebinar
