France faces 'consequential' election as far-right rout prompts Macron gamble
CTV
The snap election called by President Emmanuel Macron after Sunday's bruising loss to the far-right in European Parliament elections will be France's most fateful legislative vote in decades, its finance minister said on Monday.
The snap election called by President Emmanuel Macron after Sunday's bruising loss to the far-right in European Parliament elections will be France's most fateful legislative vote in decades, its finance minister said on Monday.
Macron's shock decision amounts to a roll of the dice on his political future and that of France. It immediately sent the euro down, also hitting French stocks and government bonds.
The June 30 and July 7 ballot could, for the first time, hand a great deal of power to Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN), if they can transform their rising popularity into a win at home too - where the vote would also be about trust that it could run a major European government.
If the eurosceptic, anti-immigration RN did score a majority, Macron would remain president for three more years and continue to be in charge of defence and foreign policy.
But he would lose the power to set the domestic agenda, ranging from economic policy to security and immigration.
The early election will also come shortly before the July 26 start of the Paris Olympics, when all eyes will be on France.
"This will be the most consequential parliamentary election for France and for the French in the history of the Fifth Republic," Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told RTL radio, referring to Charles de Gaulle's 1958 constitution, considered the starting point of modern French politics.
