One data point is enough to show how French President Emmanuel Macron’s snap election gamble went spectacularly wrong. In the first round of parliamentary elections in 2022, 4.2 million French people voted for the far-right National Rally (RN) party; on Sunday, that number was around 11 million, according to estimates by pollster Ipsos.

Thanks to Macron’s miscalculations, the eurosceptic, anti-immigration RN has a shot at securing an absolute parliamentary majority in the second round of voting on July 7 – with potentially disastrous consequences for social cohesion and for France’s place in Europe.

Financial Times