PARIS — The far-right National Rally is projected to win the European election in France with 31.5 percent of the vote — more than twice that of President Emmanuel Macron’s party.
The shock result pushed Macron to call a snap election Sunday evening.
The National Rally, headed by Jordan Bardella, is set to achieve its highest-ever finish in a nationwide election.
“The president of the Republic cannot remain deaf to the message sent this evening by the people of France,” Bardella told supporters at the Parc Floral in Paris.
The far-right leader demanded the president call early legislative elections, pointing to the “unprecedented gap” between the main opposition party and the party in power.
Macron announced the National Assembly would be dissolved this month, with new elections set to be held on June 30.
Macron’s Renaissance party scored only 15.2 percent in the EU election — one point ahead of the socialists led by Raphaël Glucksmann at 14 percent, according to early estimates.
The center-left under Glucksmann picked up support throughout the campaign, closing the gap with the liberals, who failed to gather momentum despite French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s active campaigning .
“I am proud of what have we achieved, but I don’t feel like celebrating,” Glucksmann said in response to the early results. “Everywhere in Europe, we are witnessing a wave that is shaking our democracy.”
The radical left-wing France Unbowed party, led by Manon Aubry, is expected to have bagged 8.7 percent of the vote — roughly 2.5 percentage points above its 2019 finish. The conservative Les Républicains party, meanwhile, is projected to receive 7.2 percent of the tally.
The French Greens and the nationalist Reconquest movement led by Marion Maréchal are both expected to win around 5 percent — the minimum threshold in France to elect members of the European Parliament.
A final tally of the vote will be released later this evening.
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