Why France’s president called a snap election

Mr Macron’s decision was a response to crushing results for his party, Renaissance, at elections to the European Parliament on June 9th. The party took just half the vote secured by Marine Le Pen’s hard-right party, National Rally (RN). Her triumphant 28-year-old candidate, Jordan Bardella, scored over 31%, a party record at European elections. That evening, in a televised address, Mr Macron called his decision “grave, heavy”, but argued that he could not “carry on as if nothing had happened”. The fresh vote, the president declared, was consistent with the democratic principle that “the word should be given to the sovereign people”.