French President Emmanuel Macron has called for new parliamentary elections after his camp heavily lost to the far-right National Rally party in the country's EU election.
At Sunday’s European Parliament elections, far-right parties made big gains as the Greens took a major hit, according to a first projection provided by the European Union.
In France, the party of Marine Le Pen dominated the polls, with her National Rally party standing at just over 30 per cent or about twice as much as Mr Macron’s pro-European centrist party that is projected to reach around 15 per cent.
Mr Macron said the rise of nationalists was dangerous for France, and Europe.
"I can't pretend nothing happened," he said in an address to the nation from the Elysee presidential palace.
"I've decided to give you back the choice of our parliamentary future through the vote. I am therefore dissolving the National Assembly."
The vote will take place in two rounds on June 30 and July 7, he said.
Adding insult to injury, the National Rally's lead candidate, Jordan Bardella, 28, immediately took on a presidential tone with his victory speech in Paris, opening with: "My dear compatriots" and adding "the French people have given their verdict, and it's final."
The estimates aggregated by the EU parliament are based on exit polls or other survey data, along with projections that may include some partial election returns.
The two mainstream and pro-European groups, the Christian Democrats and the Socialists, remained the dominant forces.
The Greens were expected to lose about 20 seats and fall back to sixth position in the legislature.
Balance of power shifts right
The gains by Eurosceptic nationalists across the continent may complicate EU policymaking and attempts to deepen integration over the next five years.
Far-right parties in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and elsewhere performed strongly in a vote that will see the balance of power shift rightwards in the 720-seat parliament that helps shape and approve legislation across the bloc.
Nationalist groups European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and Identity and Democracy (ID) and hard-right candidates not yet affiliated to an EU political family from Germany's AfD secured together 149 seats, a gain of 22, a first centralised exit poll showed.
The exit poll projected that pro-European centre-right, centre-left, liberal and Green parties will retain a majority of 451 seats, but one which is significantly slimmed down compared to their 488 in the outgoing chamber.
Europe's Green parties in particular suffered heavy losses, subsiding to 53 deputies from 71 in the outgoing parliament.
The European Parliament co-decides with the intergovernmental European Council on laws governing the 27-nation bloc of 450 million people.
A rightwards shift inside the parliament may make it tougher to pass new legislation that results in more EU resource sharing or cooperation that might be needed to respond to security challenges, the impact of climate change or industrial competition from China and the United States.
Exactly how much clout the euro-sceptic nationalist parties will have will depend on their ability to overcome differences and work together. They are currently split between two different families, and some parties and candidates for now lie outside these groupings.
Like Mr Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also suffered a painful night.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) shrugged off a string of scandals to take second place behind the conservatives while Mr Scholz's Social Democrats scored their worst result ever.
Conservatives seize on cost of living
Political observers attribute the shift to the right to the rise in the cost of living, concerns about migration and the cost of the green transition as well as the war in Ukraine — worries that nationalist and populist parties have seized on.
The centralised exit poll showed the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) will be the biggest political family in the new legislature, gaining five seats to field 181 deputies.
The EPP result is good news for EPP member Ursula von der Leyen who seeks a second five-year term at the helm of the powerful EU executive arm.
Ms Von der Leyen will need the backing of both EU leaders and the parliament.
However, she may still need support from some right-wing nationalists, such as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy, to secure a parliamentary majority, giving Ms Meloni and her European Conservative and Reformists (ECR) allies more leverage.
The centre-left Socialists and Democrats are poised to be the second-biggest political family, even as they lost four members to end up with 135, the exit poll showed.
In contrast, the exit poll gave the ECR two more deputies than in the last parliament for a total of 71 and the far-right ID group 13 more seats for a total of 62.
The number of non-affiliated deputies who may choose to join other groups, including the Eurosceptics, jumped by 40 to 102, the exit poll said.
ABC/wires
