Battered by far right, France’s Macron bets big on risky snap election
Preparing to host the world for the Olympics, facing threats of terrorist attacks and a war of words with Russia, France is now also shaping up as an epic battleground in the West between the political center and the far right. In European Parliament elections Sunday night, the far right surged in nations including Germany and Austria, but nowhere with more impact than in France. The far-right National Rally there clobbered the ruling centrist coalition, so much so that French President Emmanuel Macron called for snap legislative elections. His bet: That voters may be angry at him but are not truly prepared to allow the pick of Marine Le Pen — the fiery doyenne of French nationalist, euroskeptic, anti-immigration politics — to head a new French government. It’s a bet that may exact a high price.
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