PARIS.- The French president Emmanuel Macron announced on Sunday that he was dissolving the National Assembly and calling for Parliamentary election after his party suffered a heavy defeat in the elections for European Parliament.
In an address to the nation from the Elysee Palace, Macron said: “I have decided to give back to you the power of decision over our parliamentary future through the vote. Thus, I am dissolving the National Assembly”.
The elections will be held in two rounds on June 30 and July 7, he added.
The move comes as the first projected results in France on Sunday put the far-right National Rally party well ahead in the European Union parliamentary elections, defeating Macron’s pro-European centrists, according to opinion polls by French institutes.
Rise of the far right in France
The European elections confirmed this Sunday the rise of the rightin a political storm that, although it did not change the balance of power in Brussels, triggered the call for early legislative elections in France and made enormous progress in Germany and Austria.
Projections indicate that the right-wing National Rally party swept the elections in France and obtained twice as many votes as the liberal alliance launched by President Emmanuel Macron.
Never, until now, have European elections had such a devastating impact on the domestic politics of a country in the bloc, as to dissolve Parliament and call new elections.
The election of the 720 deputies of the European Parliament opens a new cycle in the EU, and the new legislators will appoint the new president of the European Commission, the executive arm of the bloc.
Bulwark against the “extremes”
After the first projections of results, the president of the European Commission and candidate for a second term, the German Ursula von der Leyen, promised to build a containment barrier against what she considers “the extremes.”
“We are going to build a bulwark against the extremes of the left and the right. We are going to contain them. That is for sure,” said Von der Leyen, despite the decision of voters who have given support to hard-line conservative sectors.
“We have won the elections!”, stated Von der Leyen on behalf of her bloc, the European People’s Party. “The EPP is the strongest political group in the European Parliament (…) A majority cannot be formed without the EPP,” he stressed.
Source: With information from AP and AFP
