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France’s far right National Rally gains clear victory in European elections - A clear victory by France’s far right party the National Rally in the European elections on Sunday, has led to French President Emmanuel Macron making the shock announcement to dissolve France’s National Assembly. The National Rally led by Jordan Bardella was well ahead of the presidential majority and the left-wing parties collecting nearly 31.5% of the votes. Macron declared on French television that he had “heard the message from the French people and would not leave them without answers” calling for the National Assembly to be dissolved and two legislative elections to be held on June the 30th and July 7th. The announcement has provoked various reactions, with some seeing it as the "only solution", while others denounced "an extremely dangerous game with democracy ".
Meanwhile, voter turnout in France was up two points with 45.26 percent of voters compared to 43.29 percent in 2019. The turnout for EU elections is generally low, but the last elections in 2019 showed the first uptick in 30 years with a turnout of 50.7 percent. The French abstention rate is estimated to have dropped from some 50 percent in 2019 to 48.6 percent, according to polling by Ipsos-Sopra Steria on Sunday. Overall, the centre-right won the largest number of seats and made the biggest number of gains in the European Parliament.
Cooler weather across France
