France
Adding another election to 2024's large tally: France’s president,
Emmanuel Macron, has said he intends to
dissolve parliament and call
snap legislative elections [National Assembly
National Assembly] in the wake of his allies’
crushing defeat to the far right National Rally (RN) in Sunday’s European parliament elections.
According to usually reliable projections, Macron’s centrist list was on course to score between 14.8% and 15.2% of the vote, less than half of
RN’s tally of 31.5%-33% - the party’s highest ever in a nationwide election - and only just ahead of the Socialist list on 14%.
The French president, whose second term had more than two years to run before elections due in 2027, said he would shortly sign a decree calling the elections, and that the first round would be held on
30 June and the
second on 7 July.
...
The RN was far from the only far-right party to be celebrating gains on Sunday night. Exit polls indicated that the
hard-right populists had also expanded their share of the vote in
Germany, Austria and the
Netherlands.
Although the centre-right alliance appeared to have taken a decisive lead in
Germany, exit polls indicated the
far-right Alternative für Deutschland had made significant gains, while the governing Greens and Social Democrats had slumped.
The Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union, now in opposition, was on course for 29.5% of the vote, while the AfD had jumped to 16.5% from 11% in 2019. The
AfD’s success comes despite a slew of scandals, including its lead candidate saying that the SS, the Nazi’s main paramilitary force, were
“not all criminals”.
...
The parties of Olaf Scholz’s ruling coalition were on course for a disastrous night, as the Social Democrats slid to 14%, worse than its weakest ever result in 2019, according to the exit poll. The Greens, who came second in 2019 with 20.5%, were knocked down to fourth place with 12 %-12.5%.
Tens of thousands of Germans took to the streets in cities including Berlin, Dresden and Munich to protest against rightwing extremism on Sunday, the final day of
European elections in 21 countries.
...
In
Austria, meanwhile, the
far-right Freedom party was forecast to have come top, with a projected 27%, ahead of the conservative People’s party and the Social Democrats, on 23.5% and 23% respectively.
In the
Netherlands Geert Wilders’ far-right party was running a close second
behind a Left-Green alliance. The Freedom party looked set to win 17.7% of the vote, while the Left-Green alliance, led by the former EU Commission vice-president, Frans Timmermans, was on 21.6%.
...
