Emmanuel Macron forced to call French elections after crushing defeat to Le Pen’s National Front party in European election results

France will go to the polls and test if Marine Le Pen’s support is as widespread as the weekend election result for her National Front party indicates.

Emmanuel Macron has called a snap French election for the lower house to be held before the Paris Olympic Games, after seeing a significant swing to the Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party in the European parliamentary elections.

The crushing loss of Macron’s own party in the weekend European parliament elections has shown bigger than expected support for nationalist and right wing parties across the continent, on the back of frustration with migration, cost of living crises, farmer unrest and overwhelmed public services.

French support for Macron’s party was running at a dismal 15 per cent of the European vote just scraping ahead of the Socialists on 14 per cent. Of particular significance, Macron’s tally is less than half of the National Rally tally of 32 per cent, which has forced his hand.

Even so, the dissolution of parliament and fresh elections on June 30 and July 7 has stunned France, especially with the campaigning and vote occurring in the midst of the popular European Championship football tournament, held in Germany, and ahead of the frenzied preparations for the Paris Olympic Games which open on July 26.

Currently Mr Macron’s Renaissance Party has no majority in the National Assembly and has difficulty getting bills through, and with the French clearly expressing their dissatisfaction, the president has responded with a call “to cut through the chaos”.

He said in a televised address early Monday Australian time: “The lesson here is clear: this is not a good result for the party … this is a situation of concern for me; demagogues and nationalists are bad for our nation, bad for Europe and bad for France in our place in the world. At a time we have just celebrated with the world on D-Day and in a short time host the Olympics and Paralympics, I couldn’t pretend nothing has happened.

“There is a feverish tone, a chaos that is a concern, it is shocking to you.’’

Mr Macron, whose tenure as president until 2027 could come under pressure after the fresh elections, said he wanted to give the French people a vote in order to “cut through the chaos”, adding “I trust in France”.

The French far-right National Rally’s current president and European candidate, a 28 year old dynamo, Jordan Bardella, said “we are ready to constitute a new majority for France’’ and that the French had expressed a desire for change.

The National Rally has been steadily increasing its support over the past five years and wants to restrict the free movement of migrants across Europe, and slow net zero policies.

“Tonight, our compatriots have expressed a desire for change,” Bardella said. “Emmanuel Macron is tonight a weakened president.”

Exit polls in the European vote have shown a distinct swing behind right wing and far right parties across Germany and Austria, as well as France.

But the centre right European Peoples Party (EPP) headed by German Manfred Weber said the biggest shifts to the right especially in France and Germany were “domestic situations”, and that the increase in support across the continent or his group would help “stabilise the political centre’’.

He told supporters in Brussels after exit polls showed the EPP group would gain 10 seats to win 186 seats. He said: “The left has no legitimacy any more, people voted for the centre right and that is good news for Europe.

The EPP’s European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will see the results as helping her campaign for another five year presidential term. “We had a fantastic campaign, we were determined, we were united, we made it and now we won the European elections.’’

She added: ”Together with others, we will build a bastion against the extremes from the left and from the right. We will stop them, this is for sure.’’