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00:00James, a lot of criticism of Emmanuel Macron today, notably from the
00:04socialists, that he has given in to the far-right. Yes, absolutely.
00:11Decisions that are criticised, including by Yel Branpouvé, who is
00:16the head of the National Assembly and who is part of Emmanuel Macron's
00:20party. A lot of questions around this very shocking decision. I was
00:23myself yesterday at the national rallies event in eastern Paris,
00:29covering it for France 24. It was very clearly a surprise. To give you
00:34an example, just minutes before Emmanuel Macron made his announcement
00:37on a huge giant screen, I was speaking to a national rally MP who was
00:42telling me, there we are, this is a result that cannot be negotiated
00:47with. We are over 30%. Emmanuel Macron needs to dissolve the National
00:51Assembly. Jordan Bardella asked for that in his speech. This person
00:55was telling me he probably won't do it. We are not expecting him to
00:59make that choice. Emmanuel Macron did. There was a bit of shock, of
01:02course. When it comes to militants and party members of the national
01:07rally, there was joy. We could witness very clearly at this pavilion
01:15in eastern Paris. Then, of course, Marine Le Pen, as you were saying,
01:19taking the stage and explaining that the party was ready to rule. Now,
01:23it's going to be a sprint. I was speaking to young national rally
01:29party members who were telling me, we will start putting up placards and
01:33attracting tomorrow on the streets already. This is going to be a very
01:37short campaign. Of course, it does require the national rally to
01:41organise in order to present candidates in every circumscription.
01:44Also, try and find a momentum in order to try and capitalise on this
01:51European victory. Of course, it's always a different game. It's a
01:54totally different ballgame winning in France with national MPs rather
01:58than European MEPs. That is, of course, what they are certainly
02:03discussing in this building behind me. For now, we have seen no-one come
02:07in or out of the building. We are widely expecting to see some of the
02:12main players come along later on and indeed come and meet here at this
02:17seat of the national rally in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. We will
02:23have to see what announcements are made, what dynamics are found and
02:27what alliances are forged behind these doors. As you say, it's such a
02:32short period of time that they have got to work out what they are going
02:35to do. What do you think the far right will be hoping for overall out
02:39of this? Yesterday, I was speaking to some party members, senior party
02:46members, telling me that they believe that a reasonable objective
02:50would be 180 seats in Parliament. That would put them in a much stronger
02:55position than they are now. For now, the national rally has 90 seats in
02:59the French National Assembly. The question is, will they manage, and
03:03this is what they are hoping for, of course, to be the first force in
03:08the Parliament, and that means choosing the Prime Minister and in
03:11turn choosing the government and eventually putting themselves in a
03:14situation where they would co-govern the country with Emmanuel Macron
03:17yesterday. There again, senior members of the party saying that quite
03:21clearly Jordan Bardella would be the Prime Minister in this case. Others
03:25being less sure of that, but it does appear that that would be the plan.
03:29So, yes, the national rally, very confident, very also organising and
03:35trying to achieve these goals, but, you know, extremely, the people I was
03:40speaking to were, of course, surprised and they were also very pleased
03:46with this result and hoping for a change. Jordan Bardella said it is
03:50the end of an era, the beginning of a new one, and we are calling upon the
03:55French to join the national rally. Yet, it has to be seen whether that
03:59will happen, because if you do your maths, of course, 50% of voters
04:03turned out yesterday, roughly, a little more, and of that, the
04:07national rally got 33% of the votes. You can expect a higher turnout when
04:11it comes to national elections for the parliament. James, thanks very
04:17much. James Andre, our senior reporter, joining us from outside the
04:20Rassemblement Nationale's headquarters there.