Macron calls snap election after huge gains by far right

French president responds to surge of populist parties in France and across the bloc in European Union elections

- TARA COBHAM, JOE MIDDLETON

The French president has said he will dissolve parliament and call a snap election after his party suffered a crushing defeat in elections for the European parliament as surging far-right parties dealt blows across the bloc.

Addressing the nation from the Elysee presidential palace yesterday, Emmanuel Macron announced the dissolution of the National Assembly and called for legislative elections to be held on 20 June and 7 July.

In a hugely politically risky move, he said: “I’ve decided to give you back the choice of our parliamentary future through the vote. I am therefore dissolving the National Assembly.”

Mr Macron said the decision was “serious” but showed his “confidence in our democracy, in letting the sovereign people have their say”. “In the next few days I’ll be saying what I think is the right direction for the nation. I’ve heard your message, your concerns, and I won’t leave them unanswered,” the president said.

Voting to elect the European Union’s regional lawmakers for the next five-year term ended at 2100 GMT yesterday after the last remaining polls closed in Italy. France is electing 81 members of the European parliament, which has 720 seats in total.

It marked the conclusion of a marathon election spanning four days across 27 bloc member countries involving some 450 million people. With official results expected any moment, initial projections provided by the European Union indicate the rise of the far right was even more astonishing than many analysts predicted.