Macron: the great risk that the French president takes by calling parliamentary elections after his crushing defeat in the European elections

French President Emmanuel Macron has called early parliamentary elections for the end of this month following the resounding victory of his rival Marine Le Pen’s party in the European Parliament elections.

Le Pen’s far-right force National Group reached 31.4% of the voteswhile Renaissance, Macron’s liberal coalition remained at 14.6% and the social democrats at 13.8%, according to estimates this Monday, waiting to know the final results.

When announcing the dissolution of Parliament this Sunday, the president announced that the two rounds of elections will be held June 30 and July 7a few weeks before the Paris Olympic Games.

Macron announced the unexpected decision in a televised speech from the Elysée Palace an hour after polling stations closed and the results of exit polls in the European elections in France were announced.

The announcement came shortly after the leader of the National Group, 28-year-old Jordan Bardellaopenly asked the president to call parliamentary elections.

“I have heard your message,” the president told French voters, “and I won’t let it go without an answer.”

“France needs a clear majority in serenity and harmony,” he stated, adding that he cannot resign himself to the advances of the extreme right “across the continent.”

Two years into his second term as president, Macron lacks a majority in the French Parliament and, although European elections in theory have no connection with national politics, he decided that continuing to govern without giving voters a say would put too much pressure on the system.

The upcoming parliamentary elections do not put Macron’s position at risk, since they are independent of the presidential elections and the French leader still has three years in office ahead of him.

Le Pen, whom Macron defeated twice in the presidential elections, immediately reacted to the electoral advance by assuring that her party was “ready to exercise power, ready to end mass immigration“.

The call for early elections is a great surprise for the country and an enormous risk for the president, who I could have reacted differently.

He could have moved on, explaining the far-right’s resounding victory as a European aberration that would be corrected in national elections.

Or he could have hoped that the impending European football championship in Germany and, above all, the Olympic Games in Paris would keep people away from politics for a couple of months.

No doubt this was how many pundits in Paris thought he would take his party’s defeat.

Others believe the president had seen the debacle coming and planned his response in advance.

The election result was an almost exact replica of the polls, so he would have had plenty of time to consider his options.

The problem is that it is stagnant.

Without a majority, getting the National Assembly to approve any bill is an odyssey.

And, now that most of the country is so clearly against him, any new legislation – for example, the next budget – could involve strong conflict.

That is why he has opted for “clarity”: if the National Group has the votes, he believes that he should be given the opportunity to govern.

Obviously, the president He hopes that his Renaissance party can resurface in the elections of June 30 and July 7, or that other parties also recover ground.

But you must understand that it is possible that there will be another victory for the National Group. It may not be as overwhelming as Sunday’s, but it is important enough to become the majority party in the French Parliament.

This could pave the way for Marine Le Pen or even Jordan Bardella to become prime minister.

As French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire warned, the upcoming French parliamentary elections may have “the most serious consequences” in the country’s modern history.

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