French President Emmanuel Macron has a huge gamble by calling early parliamentary elections after having suffered a heavy defeat in European elections on Sunday, June 9.
The president's all-or-nothing bet could result in France having a far-right prime minister in less than a month.
After each of her electoral breakthroughs, Marine Le Pen called for the president – be it Nicolas Sarkozy, François Hollande or Emmanuel Macron – to dissolve the Assemblée Nationale, without ever expecting them to actually oblige.
A small group of close confidants quietly worked on the high-risk scenario. Allies of former president Nicolas Sarkozy pushed President Macron to take the plunge. Sunday's catastrophic score in the European elections precipitated the decision.
The French president is faced with the contradictory challenge he set himself: To reduce the far-right vote without having implemented a policy capable of eradicating its roots, writes Le Monde's director, Jérôme Fenoglio.
Macron has decided to dissolve the Assemblée Nationale for the first time since 1997. What does it mean and what happens now?