France’s Macron calls for snap elections after far right surge in EU vote

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced he will dissolve parliament and call new legislative elections after exit polls showed his alliance suffered a heavy defeat in European elections to Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) party. Macron said the European Parliament results on Sunday were grim for his government, and ones he could not pretend to ignore. In an address to the nation, he said lower house elections would be called for June 30, with a second-round vote on July 7. Al Jazeera’s Natasha Butler reports from Paris. Olaf Boehnke, is the Director and Senior Advisor at Alliance of Democracies, offers further insight from Berlin. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #EU #EuropeanUnion #2024EUElection #EUPolitics #France #MarineLePen #EmmanuelMacron #NationalRallyParty #MEP #RenaissanceParty #FrenchParliament