Europe is reeling after President Macron was trounced by Marine Le Pen in EU elections, amid a hard-right surge across the continent.
In a humiliating defeat for Macron and Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, the European elections showed right-wing populists making huge gains, prompting the French president to call snap parliamentary polls.
“Far-right parties are progressing everywhere in the continent. It is a situation to which I cannot resign myself,” Macron said on Sunday night, as his Renaissance liberals were beaten by Marine Le Pen’s radical hard-right National Rally more than two to one.
Marine Le Pen, along with Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, now stands at the forefront of a populist resurgence in Europe
ANDRE PAIN/EPA
“I cannot act as if nothing had happened. I decided to give you the choice. Therefore I will dissolve the National Assembly tonight.”
On Monday he posted a message on Twitter/X