Across Europe, the far and populist right made notable gains in the European Parliament elections raising questions over what the political future of the continent looked like.
French President Emmanuel Macron has called a snap election after his party suffered calamitous results in EU elections – while in Belgium, poor general election results have led to its prime minister pledging his resignation.
Marine Le Pen’s hard right National Rally party won about 32% of the European Parliament vote in France – a 10 point increase on the last election in 2019.
It is more than double the less than 15% taken by Mr Macron’s centrist, pro-European Renaissance party, according to exit polls.
Mr Macron said he could not “pretend nothing had happened” and admitted the EU election was “no good” for his government.
The “rise of nationalists” is a danger to France and to Europe, he said.
Mr Macron is a “weakened president” said Jordan Bardella, National Rally’s lead candidate.
Across the border in Belgium, Alexander De Croo’s liberal party took less than 7% of the vote in the general election.
“This is a very difficult evening for us – we have lost,” Mr De Croo said yesterday.
“From tomorrow I will be the outgoing prime minister. But we liberals are strong, and we will be back.”
Meanwhile in Germany, Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats were also dealt a blow by voters as the scandal-hit Alternative for Germany party (AfD) leap-frogged them into second place.
Speaking at the Elysee Palace, Mr Macron said: “I’ve decided to give you back the choice of our parliamentary future through the vote.
“I am therefore dissolving the National Assembly.”
There will be two rounds of voting on 30 June and 7 July, he added.
“I have heard your message, your concerns, and I will not leave them unanswered,” Mr Macron said.
“France needs a clear majority in order to act with serenity and harmony.”
Ms Le Pen said her party was “ready to take over power if the French give us their trust in the upcoming national elections”.
She added: “We are ready to put the country back on its feet. We are ready to defend the interests of the French people. We are ready to put an end to mass immigration.”
Mr Macron appears to be “playing poker” and is taking “huge risks with the political future of his country”, French political scientist Dominique Moisi told Sky News.
The French president’s decision was a “total surprise”, Mr Moisi added.
“Nobody was expecting in France that the president would choose to dissolve the parliament a few weeks before the Olympic Games in France [and] a few days after the commemoration of D-Day on the Normandy beaches.”
Donald Tusk, the prime minister of Poland, said Mr Macron had “no choice” about dissolving parliament.
“This is a lesson for us,” he added.
Belgium now faces complex coalition talks after Flemish nationalist parties won the federal elections.
Polls initially predicted that the far-right, anti-immigration Vlaams Belang party would seize first spot, but the right-wing nationalist New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) retained first place, with an expected 22% of the votes, according to provisional results provided by the Interior ministry.
Vlaams Belang came second with 17.5% of the votes, ahead of the Socialist Voruit party, which garnered around 10.5% of the votes.
De Croo’s party managed less than 7% of the votes, lagging well behind.
A similar move to the right is under way in Germany too, the EU’s most populous nation.
AfD, its top candidate hounded by scandal after telling Italian newspaper La Repubblica that the SS, the Nazis’ main paramilitary force, were “not all criminals”, swept past the struggling Social Democrats, and into second place with 16.5% of the vote – up from 11% in 2019.
Mr Scholz’s long-standing Social Democrats now sit third after the vote and AfD’s gains appear to have come from young people in particular.
Co-leader Alice Weidel said her party had done well because “people have become more anti-European”.
She added: “People are annoyed by so much bureaucracy from Brussels.”
