Paris mayor 'stunned' by snap French election weeks before Olympics

We're closing this page soon - thank you for reading. Our final post, published next, comes from our Europe correspondent Nick Beake in France.

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• In France, President Emmanuel Macron called a snap parliamentary election after National Rally comfortably won the European vote
• National Rally won 31.4% of the vote, more than double the share of Macron's centrist alliance
• Marine Le Pen - the party's leader in parliament - welcomed the snap election, saying her party is "ready to take power if the French give us their trust", while Jean-Noel Barrot, France's Europe minister, told the BBC that Macron's Renaissance party had been beaten the far right before and "we can beat them again"
• The parliamentary election falls just weeks before France hosts the Olympic Games - the Mayor of Paris, Anne Higaldo, said she was "stunned" at the timing
• In Germany, the far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) took second place with 16% of the vote, while the centre right Christian Democrats (CDU) came first
• Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats had their worst-ever result in a European election, coming third
• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, from the CDU, says her centre-right EPP grouping will approach social democratic and liberal parties to try to form another majority in the European Parliament.
• In Italy, the far right Brothers of Italy, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, looks set to finish with around half of Italy's 76 seats, coming top with almost 29% of the vote
• In Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition came first, knocking the right-wing Law and Justice party into second place and breaking its nine-election winning streak
• The Nordic countries bucked the European trend, with strong showings for the left and greens in Denmark, Sweden, and Finland
• Meanwhile, an an Italian under house arrest in Hungary has been elected as an MEP in Italy, and a 24-year-old YouTube prankster in Cyprus has also been elected

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The centre-right New Democracy won Greece's European elections - but outside their offices on Sunday evening, there were no ordinary voters, only party members and journalists.

It's been a few years since parties' supporters met in the centre of Athens after electoral victories.

"Our party did not reach the goal we set," says Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, from New Democracy. "Many voters complained about everyday issues such as punctuality. I hear their voices."

His ruling party got 28.3% of the vote - a comfortable win, but 12 points lower than the figure in 2023 Greece's national elections. Turnout was also a record low of around 40%.

Meanwhile, the percentages of the far-right parties added up to around 17%. They are ultra-conservative, pro-Russian or pro-church parties, and call themselves "anti-systemic". This could be the next big question in Greece.

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Let’s take you to Cyprus, where voters have elected a 24-year-old YouTube star, Fidias Panayiotou, as an independent to the European Parliament.

Famous for his pranks and comedy clips, “Fidias” - as he is known online - has 2.6 million followers on YouTube.

His most watched clips include a mission to hug 100 celebrities, pizza-eating contests, and dodging fares on Japanese bullet trains.

Even though he has no political experience - and calls himself "a professional mistake maker" - his campaign attracted large numbers of young voters.

While far-right and centre-right parties performed well in most EU countries, the Nordic countries bucked the trend - with strong showings for the left and greens in Denmark, Sweden, and Finland.

In Denmark, the Socialist People's Party received the largest share of the vote, with 17.4%, while the centre-left Social Democrats, the country's ruling party, came second with 15.6%.

"In large parts of Europe, the right wing has advanced significantly," Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen says. "This is where we stand out."

The Sweden Democrats, the most right-wing of the country's major parties, had been expected to place second, but preliminary results put them fourth with 13.2%, a fall of 2.1 points since 2019.

The centre-left Social Democrats emerged the largest party with an increased share of the vote, while the Green Party and Left Party also saw their support increase.

In Finland, the Left Alliance saw its vote share increase by 10.4 points to 17.3%, placing second, while support for the far right Finns Party fell 6.2 points to 7.6%.

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In Spain, the leader of the conservative People’s Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, hailed last night’s result as an "overwhelming” victory, which marked the beginning of a new political cycle.

His party gained nine seats to secure a total of 22, with 34.2% of the vote, benefitting from the collapse of the Ciudadanos party.

However, despite the win, this was not the devastating blow to Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez the conservatives had hoped for.

"If Mr Núñez Feijóo has tried to present this election as a plebiscite on the prime minister, it is very clear that he has lost that plebiscite,” said Teresa Ribera, the lead candidate for the Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), which secured 20 seats with 30.2% of the vote.

That was one seat fewer than in 2019. But given the bruising nature of the campaign - during which a judicial investigation into Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, often hogged the headlines - the PSOE will feel it has emerged relatively unscathed.

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As we've reported, National Rally were the clear winners in France's European elections, winning 31% of the vote - more than double the total of President Macron's centrist alliance.

But what do they want? At the last presidential election in 2022, when Marine Le Pen was the candidate, the National Rally programme included:

• A promise to hold a referendum to enshrine control of immigration into the constitution

• A ban on wearing headscarves in public

• The withdrawing of residency permits for migrants who are unemployed longer than a year

• The removal of birthright citizenship

• The privatisation of the public broadcaster

• Slashing fuel, gas and electricity taxes from 20% to 5.5%

• The end of income tax for under-30s

• Increase to pensions and early retirement at 60 for those with 40 years' work

But remember that, given Macron only called the election last night, it will be a while before we get the RN's finalised 2024 manifesto.

Let's head back to France now, and President Macron’s decision to call a snap parliamentary election after losing the European elections to the far-right.

As we reported earlier, the decision is being seen by some as a "gamble".

But Jean-Noel Barrot, France's Europe minister, tells the BBC's Newshour that Macron has beaten the far right before.

Quote Message: What matters is the political project, the political platforms that you're going to propose to your co-citizens. We've been able to beat the populists and the nationalists in 2017, and in 2022. I'm sure that we can beat them again this year."

What matters is the political project, the political platforms that you're going to propose to your co-citizens. We've been able to beat the populists and the nationalists in 2017, and in 2022. I'm sure that we can beat them again this year."

EPACopyright: EPA

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says she will approach social democratic and liberal parties that she has worked with in the past to form a majority in the European Parliament.

Von der Leyen's Christian Democratic Union party (CDU) is part of the centre-right European People's Party grouping, which looks set to retain its position as the largest bloc.

"Throughout my election campaign, I worked hard to build a broad and effective majority in favour of a strong Europe," von der Leyen says.

"For this reason, we will now approach the large political families who also worked well with us in the last mandate."

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Last November, anti-immigration Freedom Party (PVV) leader - and long-time Marine Le Pen ally - Geert Wilders won a shock victory in the Netherlands’ national election.

The EU election predictions suggest the public sentiment hasn't changed much since then.

The headlines: Green-Left parties secured the most seats, while the Freedom Party made the greatest gains.

The nuances: Centre-right parties had a strong showing.

Dutch and EU political veteran Frans Timmermans said: “This shows that a majority in the Netherlands wants to strengthen Europe and certainly not destroy it.”

While Geert Wilders - who until recently promised a Nexit (i.e. Netherlands' exit from the EU) referendum - posted five red love heart emojis on X. "Still the biggest winner with five more seats.”

Interestingly, the biggest celebrations I witnessed in the parliament bar last night were being held by two relative newcomers, at opposite ends of the political spectrum.

Pro-EU Volt (from none to two MEPs) cheered and toasted beneath an archway of blue and yellow balloons. While outside the revolving doors, the unmistakable Farmer Citizen Movement leader Caroline van der Plas was taking in some fresh air alongside the party's new MEP Jessika van Leeuwen.

In Oradour-sur-Glane, a village in western France, the German and French presidents have commemorated the anniversary of a Nazi massacre.

Some 643 people, including 247 children, were killed by SS soldiers 80 years ago. The village was destroyed but rebuilt nearby.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said it is "fittingly on the day after the European elections that I say: let us never forget the damage done in Europe by nationalism and hate. Let us never forget the miracle of reconciliation the European Union has worked."

Macron added: "It is in this memory, in the ashes of Oradour, that we have to ensure the strength of this reconciliation is reborn."

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Some reaction to the European elections now from Russia - where presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov says "right-wing" parties will continue to catch up with more pro-EU parties.

"We see a trend of increasing popularity of right-wing parties. This is visible to the naked eye," Peskov says, via the state news agency TASS.

"Despite the fact that so far the pro-Europeans have maintained their leading position, in time the right-wing parties will nip at their heels. That is why we are closely watching this process."

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An Italian woman on trial in Hungary and under house arrest for allegedly attacking neo-Nazis hopes for immunity under EU law after being elected to the European Parliament.

llaria Salis was a candidate for Italy's Greens and Left Alliance (AVS) party, which won 6.7%.

After being imprisoned for more than a year, Salis was given house arrest last month.

"We have had six MEPs elected, and among these is Ilaria Salis," Nicola Fratoianni, one of the party's leaders, says. "Now we want Ilaria here in Italy - free, and with immunity, ready to carry out her mandate."

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The top candidate for Germany's far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) will be excluded from the party's group at the European Parliament, the party has said.

Maximilian Krah agreed to stop campaigning and resigned from the AfD's leadership board in May after saying in a newspaper interview that being a member of the SS, the Nazi's main paramilitary force, did not make someone "automatically a criminal".

It was already too late by that point for his name to be removed from the electoral ballot. He will still be an MEP.

He has also been investigated by German prosecutors for allegedly taking payments from Russia and China - allegations he has denied.

Responding to AfD's announcement, Krah said on social media the decision sends the party down "the wrong path and sends a devastating signal to our voters".

The Freedom Party (FPÖ) leader, Herbert Kickl, has told a crowd of cheering supporters tha his party's victory in the European elections marked “a new era in politics”.

And the next step, he said, is the chancellery.

Austria will hold parliamentary elections in the autumn. Neither of the past two leaders of FPÖ, Hans Christian Strache or Jörg Haider, were able to deliver first-place for their party. But now the party is feeling confident.

Writing in Der Standard newspaper, editor-in-chief Gerold Riedmann said the FPÖ had become a melting pot of people who have "concerns about migration; who don’t think Putin is all that bad; who felt humiliated by vaccination and corona [virus]; who think climate protection is unnecessary; and who simply want to teach everyone a lesson".

With most of the votes counted, the FPÖ won 25.7 percent of the vote, just ahead of the conservative People’s Party at 24.7. The Social Democrats got 23.3 percent, the Greens 10.9 percent, the liberal Neos 10.1.

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The Czech president Petr Pavel says the rise in support for extremism in Europe “cannot be ignored”.

In a post on X, President Pavel – a liberal, pro-western leader and firm advocate of providing military support to Ukraine – says Europe “needs to take notice of these voices” and examine why support for far-right, conservative nationalist parties was increasing.

However, he said in his view the EU’s basic orientation on security or democracy was unlikely to change after these elections.

"Anti-system" parties won around 30% of the vote in the Czech Republic, and will fill five of the country’s 21 seats in the European Parliament.

They range from far-left to far-right as well as single-issue parties such as "The Motorists", who won largely on opposition to the EU’s Green Deal and its plans to phase out petrol and diesel cars.

However, even the main opposition ANO – which has up until now been part of the liberal Renew Europe grouping – increasingly employs the Eurosceptic rhetoric of the far right.

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Here's more reaction to France's snap parliamentary elections - first from President Macron's foreign minister, Stephane Sejourne:

Quote Message: I think it's an election of clarification to lift the roadblocks. Today the French electoral landscape shows that 40% of those who voted chose a far-right list…yesterday's result is a lightning bolt in political life, we must take that into account." from Stephane Sejourne French Foreign Minister

I think it's an election of clarification to lift the roadblocks. Today the French electoral landscape shows that 40% of those who voted chose a far-right list…yesterday's result is a lightning bolt in political life, we must take that into account."

Sebastian Chenu - a member of the far-right National Rally, which comfortably won the election - says his party is ready to go again:

Quote Message: We are ready, we prepared [for] this dissolution, we called for it and since we called for it, we imagined that at one point or another, Emmanuel Macron would press the button… yes we are ready and at the end of the week we will have our 577 candidates set up." from Sebastian Chenu National Rally politician

We are ready, we prepared [for] this dissolution, we called for it and since we called for it, we imagined that at one point or another, Emmanuel Macron would press the button… yes we are ready and at the end of the week we will have our 577 candidates set up."

The mayor of Paris says she is having "difficulty understanding" why President Macron chose to call parliamentary elections just weeks before the city hosts the Olympic Games.

The ballot will take place across two rounds on 30 June and 7 July, while the Olympics will get under way on 26 July.

Anne Hidalgo - a member of the Sociast Party, which opposes Macron - describes the president's decision as "another move I am having difficulty understanding".

"Like a lot of people I was stunned to hear the president decide to do a dissolution," she says. "A dissolution just before the Games, it's really something that is extremely unsettling."

However, the president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, says France's political leaders are united in their support of the games, and he has seen "no indication whatsoever that this unity will break now".

"France is used to holding elections. They will do it one more time. There will be a new government and everyone will support the Olympics," he says.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters