Risky bet: Macron hopes to contain far right in national elections after it surged in EU vote
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00:00French President Emmanuel Macron has asked the country to decide the fate of its future,
00:07calling a snap election immediately after his party's crushing defeat in the EU elections.
00:14After having consulted Article 12 of our constitution, I have decided to give you back the choice
00:23of our parliamentary future through the vote. I am therefore dissolving the National Assembly
00:30and will sign in a few moments a decree for legislative elections, which will be held
00:35on June 30th for the first round and July 7th for the second.
00:44Projections indicated Macron's pro-European centrist party was to get just 15% of the
00:49vote at the European elections, less than half of the far-right National Rally Party
00:54with 31-32%. It was a poor result for Macron and his party and one he said he could not
01:02resign himself to, suggesting he sees the rise of nationalism as a danger to Europe.
01:08Macron made the announcement shortly after Jordan Bardalla, the triumphant president
01:12of the National Rally Party, called on him to take note of this new political situation.
01:18Marine Le Pen, the party's leader, then welcomed the legislative elections.
01:25We are ready to exercise power if the French trust us in the upcoming legislative elections.
01:31We are ready to rebuild the country, ready to defend the interests of the French, ready
01:36to put an end to mass immigration, ready to make the purchasing power of the French a
01:41priority, ready to begin the re-industrialisation of the country.
01:49Now French voters have just weeks to decide. Do they want a future governed by the far-right?