President Macron has called snap parliamentary elections in France after Europe’s hard-right political parties, led by Marine Le Pen, were backed by millions of voters in the EU election.
In a humiliating defeat for Macron and Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, the first national exit polls and estimates showed right-wing populists were making significant gains.
In France, Le Pen’s party, the National Rally, won 32 per cent of the vote, more than double Macron’s Renaissance, which only narrowly avoided coming third behind a socialist-led coalition.
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