French President Emmanuel Macron has dissolved the lower house of parliament and announced fresh elections after his party’s poor performance in the EU elections. His party was defeated by the far-right National Rally.
French President Emanuel Macron announced Sunday he was dissolving the National Assembly and calling a snap election after his centrist alliance was trounced by the far-right National Rally in the European Parliament elections.
According to the first exit polls, the National Rally won around 32%, more than double Macron’s pro-EU coalition, which received 15% of the vote.
The first round of France’s parliamentary election will be held on June 30 and a second round is scheduled for July 7.
Exit polls on Sunday have shown the far-right making substantial gains in other member states in the European Parliament election, including in Germany and Austria.
I’m confused. So Macron’s party was democratically voted out by the people? So instead of accepting defeat like any rational person/party would, he decided to call a mulligan and do it all over again? What’s he going to do if they lose a second time?
As an American, I feel like this is somewhat familiar, and would have negative consequences.
Edit: I will admit, I am not as savvy with foreign politics. I jumped the gun, and made an incorrect assumption based on my emotions. For that, I apologize. I do want to thank k those who took the time to explain it to me; I have learned something today, and it’s appreciated.
His party lost hard in the EU Parliement elections tonight. The last legislative elections in France were a few years ago, and this is the one he’s calling for right now.
Basically the opposite of what you’ve suggested. Theoretically this is allowing the parliament to more closely align with what the EU elections suggest the people want. Obviously he’s probably hoping that his party is voted back into power, indicating that France actually does support a pro-EU stance, but that’s not guaranteed to happen.
Two separate elections, he’s got power in France but at the European level people just voted for another party, so he’s started the election process in France to let people decide if they want the party in power in France to reflect the choice they just made at the European level.
Fucking poetic
To explain it in American terms:
Pennsylvania has just voted in an election for US Congress on the federal level, and voted in the Republicans with huge gains. The Democratic Pennsylvania Governor then calls for an election for the state legislature of Pennsylvania (this can’t be done in the US, but let’s pretend it can) so that the people can elect a new state legislature that more closely aligns with their current position.