Why Emmanuel Macron has called snap elections

President surprises France with vote after Marine Le Pen's EU victory

Emmanuel Macron on television, announcing surprise parliamentary election
Emmanuel Macron risks being 'left as a lame duck'
(Image credit: Arnaud Finistre / Getty Images)

French President Emmanuel Macron has called snap parliamentary elections after a victory for Marine Le Pen's National Rally in the European Parliament vote. 

It won 31.5% of the vote, more than double the share that went to Macron's centrist party. Exit polls had begun to roll in when Macron delivered his "bombshell moment" to the French population, said the BBC.

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The snap elections are a "massive gamble", said Euronews. Macron has already lost his absolute majority in the national assembly after being re-elected two years ago.

If National Rally wins a majority, Macron will be "left as a lame duck" until his term ends in 2027.

Analysts told The Guardian that a National Rally majority was "unlikely", in part because European elections are seen by voters as a "low-cost way of delivering a kick to the incumbent government" and things "may well turn out differently in a local parliamentary election".

Macron is trying to "make the best of his weak position by reclaiming the initiative" and forcing National Rally "into election mode faster than it would have liked". But the "unexpected decision" is a "roll of the dice" on his political future.

 
Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.