Macron hopes to contain far right in national elections after it surged in EU vote. It's a risky bet
French President Emmanuel Macron called snap legislative elections after his pro-European party was handed a chastening defeat and projected to garner less than half the support of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally
The far right's surge in France in elections for the European Parliament was widely expected. What came next was not.
French President Emmanuel Macron called snap legislative elections, saying he could not ignore the new political reality after his pro-European party was handed a chastening defeat and projected to garner less than half the support of Marine Le Pen's National Rally.
He hopes that voters will band together to contain the far right in national elections in a way they didn't in European ones.
But Sunday’s decision to dissolve parliament and send to the polls voters who just expressed their discontent with Macron's politics was a risky move that could result in the French far right leading a government for the first time since World War II.
