French President Emmanuel Macron has called snap parliamentary elections after a victory for Marine Le Pen's National Rally in the European Parliament vote.
It won 31.5% of the vote, more than double the share that went to Macron's centrist party. Exit polls had begun to roll in when Macron delivered his "bombshell moment" to the French population, said the BBC .
The "Paris commentariat" had thought he would shrug off the result as an "aberration", said the BBC , and trust that the upcoming Olympics and European football championships would distract from politics. But Macron said he could not "pretend nothing had happened", said Sky News , and admitted the EU election was "no good" for his government.
The snap elections are a "massive gamble", said Euronews . Macron has already lost his absolute majority in the national assembly after being re-elected two years ago.
Le Pen and National Rally president Jordan Bardella "sought to frame the EU election as a mid-term referendum on Mr Macron's mandate, tapping into discontent with immigration, crime and a two-year inflation crisis", said The Telegraph .
If National Rally wins a majority, Macron will be "left as a lame duck" until his term ends in 2027.
The first round of elections for the national assembly will take place on 30 June and the second on 7 July, a few weeks before the Paris Olympics.
Analysts told The Guardian that a National Rally majority was "unlikely", in part because European elections are seen by voters as a "low-cost way of delivering a kick to the incumbent government" and things "may well turn out differently in a local parliamentary election".
Macron is trying to "make the best of his weak position by reclaiming the initiative" and forcing National Rally "into election mode faster than it would have liked". But the "unexpected decision" is a "roll of the dice" on his political future.
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