Macron calls snap French election and Belgian prime minister to resign after disastrous election results
French President Emmanuel Macron has called a snap election after his party suffered calamitous results in elections to the European Parliament.
Marine Le Pen’s hard right National Rally party won about 32% of the vote – a 10 point increase on the last EU election in 2019.
It is more than double the 15% taken by Mr Macron’s centrist, pro-European Renaissance party, according to exit polls.
Mr Macron said he could not “pretend nothing had happened” and admitted the EU election was “no good” for his government.
The “rise of nationalists” is a danger to France and to Europe, he said.
Mr Macron is a “weakened president” said Jordan Bardella, National Rally’s lead candidate.
Across the border in Belgium, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo is to resign after his party took less than 7% of the vote in his country’s general election.
“This is a very difficult evening for us – we have lost,” Mr De Croo said.
“From tomorrow I will be the outgoing prime minister. But we liberals are strong, and we will be back.”
Speaking at the Elysee Palace, Mr Macron said: “I’ve decided to give you back the choice of our parliamentary future through the vote.
“I am therefore dissolving the National Assembly.”
There will be two rounds of voting on 30 June and 7 July, he added.
“I have heard your message, your concerns, and I will not leave them unanswered,” Mr Macron said.
“France needs a clear majority in order to act with serenity and harmony.”
Ms Le Pen said her party was “ready to take over power if the French give us their trust in the upcoming national elections”.
She added: “We are ready to put the country back on its feet. We are ready to defend the interests of the French people. We are ready to put an end to mass immigration.”
Mr Macron appears to be “playing poker” and is taking “huge risks with the political future of his country”, French political scientist Dominique Moïsi told Sky News.
The French president’s decision was a “total surprise”, Mr Moïsi added.
“Nobody was expecting in France that the president would choose to dissolve the parliament a few weeks before the Olympic Games in France [and] a few days after the commemoration of D-Day on the Normandy beaches.”
Donald Tusk, the prime minister of Poland, said Mr Macron had “no choice” about dissolving parliament.
“This is a lesson for us,” he added.
A similar move to the right is underway in Germany, too.
The Alternative for Germany party (AfD) appears to have taken second place in EU elections there, while Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats recorded their worst ever result, falling to 14%.
Projections showed the AfD’s vote had risen to 16.5% – up from 11% in 2019.
Its gains appear to have come from young people in particular.
Co-leader Alice Weidel said her party had done well because “people have become more anti-European”.
She added: “People are annoyed by so much bureaucracy from Brussels.”
The centre-right Christian Democratic bloc of EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen dominated in Germany with almost 30%.
In Italy, Brothers of Italy, the party of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, won between 26-30% of the vote, state broadcaster RAI said, with the centre-left PD party on 21-25%.
It appears to have been a disappointing election for green parties.
In Germany, they are predicted to fall from 20% to 12%, while further losses are expected in France and several other EU nations.
Some 373 million Europeans across all 27 EU countries were eligible to vote – and they have elected 720 representatives.
Members take their seats in mid-July.