Anti-war Parties Surge In Recent EU Elections, Macron Faces Crushing Defeat
Following a historic loss to Marine Le Pen’s right-wing party in European elections on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he is dissolving the French parliament.
Macron said France will hold new elections on June 30 and July 7, a high-stakes maneuver that the WSJ said "stunned" the nation after projections based on early ballot counts came in for Sunday’s elections for the European Parliament. The projections showed National Rally garnering around 31% of the vote, twice the support for Macron’s Renew Party.
Results in France look as bad as had been forecast, per exit polls. Macon's party barely gets 2nd place - and less than half the 31.5% of the National Rally of Marine Le Pen.
Will have consequences in France, but also Europe.
— Stanley Pignal (@spignal) June 9, 2024
https://twitter.com/spignal/status/1799864866582225235
Bardella and Le Pen humiliate Macron in European elections. Macron dissolves National Assembly and calls new elections in a month.
— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) June 9, 2024
https://twitter.com/RadioGenoa/status/1799896231109591103
National Rally leader Jordan Bardella said Sunday’s results marked an “unprecedented rout for the powers that be,” adding that it was “day-one of the post-Macron era.”
The shocking news in France comes after Europe's right wing parties put on a show of strength in this weekend's EU elections, which also reinforced German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s position lagging two rival parties.
As reported earlier, the Social Democratic Party of German chancellor Scholz also apparently faced a drubbing. According to national exit polls, it was running third behind the far-right Alternative for Germany and the clear winner, Germany’s opposition center-right alliance.
As the WSJ notes, "Sunday’s results point to trouble for the EU leadership’s ability to pursue its environmental goals and indicate that pressure will mount to tighten migration rules under right-wing pressure. The vote is also likely to give a greater voice—at least within the parliament—to nationalist and left-wing critics of EU support for Ukraine."
Despite pro-EU parties’ setbacks, they appeared to hold enough seats to cobble together a majority of lawmakers to approve their priorities. An assessment from exit poll-aggregator Europe Elects suggested that center-right, centrist and center-left political blocs would secure 413 seats in the new parliament, a clear majority. Right-wing nationalist parties look set to secure at least 160 votes.
While the results push European politics to the right, divisions among the nationalist and far-right EU parties are likely to blunt the impact of their gains.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/right-wing-tsunami-nationalists-ascendant-euro-parliament-vote-le-pen-crushes-macron
