Macron calls snap French election and Belgian PM to resign after disastrous poll results
French President Emmanuel Macron has called a snap election after his party suffered calamitous results in EU elections – while in Belgium, poor general election results have led to its prime minister pledging his resignation.
Marine Le Pen’s hard right National Rally party won about 32% of the European Parliament vote in France – a 10 point increase on the last election in 2019.
It is more than double the less than 15% taken by Mr Macron’s centrist, pro-European Renaissance party, according to exit polls.
Mr Macron said he could not “pretend nothing had happened” and admitted the EU election was “no good” for his government.
The “rise of nationalists” is a danger to France and to Europe, he said.
Mr Macron is a “weakened president” said Jordan Bardella, National Rally’s lead candidate.
Across the border in Belgium, Alexander De Croo’s liberal party took less than 7% of the vote in the general election.
“This is a very difficult evening for us – we have lost,” Mr De Croo said.
“From tomorrow I will be the outgoing prime minister. But we liberals are strong, and we will be back.”
Mr Macron said France ‘needs a clear majority’ as he announced the snap election. Pic: Reuters
Meanwhile in Germany, Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats were also dealt a blow by voters as the scandal-hit Alternative for Germany party (AfD) leap-frogged them into second place.
Speaking at the Elysee Palace, Mr Macron said: “I’ve decided to give you back the choice of our parliamentary future through the vote.
“I am therefore dissolving the National Assembly.”
There will be two rounds of voting on 30 June and 7 July, he added.
“I have heard your message, your concerns, and I will not leave them unanswered,” Mr Macron said.
“France needs a clear majority in order to act with serenity and harmony.”
Jordan Bardella, National Rally’s lead candidate. Pic: AP
Ms Le Pen said her party was “ready to take over power if the French give us their trust in the upcoming national elections”.
She added: “We are ready to put the country back on its feet. We are ready to defend the interests of the French people. We are ready to put an end to mass immigration.”
Mr Macron appears to be “playing poker” and is taking “huge risks with the political future of his country”, French political scientist Dominique Moisi told Sky News.
The French president’s decision was a “total surprise”, Mr Moisi added.
“Nobody was expecting in France that the president would choose to dissolve the parliament a few weeks before the Olympic Games in France [and] a few days after the commemoration of D-Day on the Normandy beaches.”
Donald Tusk, the prime minister of Poland, said Mr Macron had “no choice” about dissolving parliament.
“This is a lesson for us,” he added.
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Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella at National Rally meeting. Pic: Reuters
A similar move to the right is under way in Germany too, the EU’s most populous nation.
AfD, its top candidate hounded by scandal after telling Italian newspaper La Repubblica that the SS, the Nazis’ main paramilitary force, were “not all criminals”, swept past the struggling Social Democrats, and into second place with 16.5% of the vote – up from 11% in 2019.
Mr Scholz’s long-standing Social Democrats now sit third after the vote and AfD’s gains appear to have come from young people in particular.
Co-leader Alice Weidel said her party had done well because “people have become more anti-European”.
She added: “People are annoyed by so much bureaucracy from Brussels.”
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The centre-right Christian Democratic bloc of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen dominated in Germany with almost 30%.
In Italy, Brothers of Italy, the party of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, strengthened their hand and won between 26-30% of the vote, state broadcaster RAI said, with the centre-left PD party on 21-25%.
It appears to have been a disappointing election for green parties.
In Germany, they are predicted to fall from 20% to 12%, while further losses are expected in France and several other EU nations.
Some 373 million Europeans across all 27 EU countries were eligible to vote – and they have elected 720 representatives.
Overall, the liberal and socialist parties retained their majority in the 720-seat parliament but the vote raised serious questions about how the European Union’s major powers can continue to drive policy.
Members take their seats in mid-July.
Pro-Western candidate Nicusor Dan has unexpectedly beaten hard-right populist George Simion in the Romanian presidential election.
Mr Simion, 38, and his rival – a centrist who’s mayor of Bucharest – faced off in the second round of the contest.
According to the official tally, Mr Dan was leading by nearly nine percentage points with more than 98% of the votes counted.
Pic: Reuters
Mr Dan and his supporters celebrated the exit polls. Pic: Reuters
After exit polls suggested he wasn’t going to win, Trump-supporting Mr Simion rejected the result and said estimates put him 400,000 votes ahead.
Speaking after voting ended, Mr Simion said his election was “clear” as he posted on Facebook: “I won!!! I am the new President of Romania and I am giving back the power to the Romanians!”
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Romania’s last election was annulled after its highest court ruled the leading candidate, nationalist Calin Georgescu, should be disqualified due to claims of electoral interference by Russia.
The result is surprising because in the first round, 38-year-old Mr Simion, founder of the right-wing Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), took 40.96% of the vote – almost 20 points ahead.
George Simion rejected the polls but official counting saw him slip behind. Pic: Reuters
Supporters of Mr Dan celebrated on the streets of the capital Bucharest. Pic: AP
An opinion poll on Friday had it much closer, but still suggested the two men were virtually tied.
Mr Dan, a 55-year-old mathematician, is running as an independent and has pledged to clamp down on corruption.
He is also staunchly pro-EU and NATO, and has said Romania’s support for Ukraine is vital for its own security.
When voting closed at 9pm local time, 11.6 million people – about 64% of eligible voters – had cast ballots. About 1.64 million Romanians living abroad also took part.
About 11.6 million people – 64% of eligible voters – cast ballots. Pic: AP
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The election is being closely watched across Europe amid a rise of support for President Donald Trump.
After polls closed, Mr Dan said “elections are not about politicians” but about communities and that in the latest vote “a community of Romanians has won, a community that wants a profound change in Romania”.
“When Romania goes through difficult times, let us remember the strength of this Romanian society,” he said.
“There is also a community that lost today’s elections. A community that is rightly outraged by the way politics has been conducted in Romania up to now.”
Israel has said it will allow a “basic quantity of food” into the besieged enclave of Gaza to avoid a “starvation crisis” following a near three-month blockade.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the decision was “based on the operational need to enable the expansion of the military operation to defeat Hamas”.
Gaza, where local authorities say more than 53,000 people have died in Israel’s 19-month campaign, has been under a complete blockade on humanitarian aid since 2 March.
It comes as global food security experts warn of famine across the territory and after a UN-backed report issued last Monday which warned one in five people in Gaza were facing starvation.
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Israel ramps up bombing in Gaza
The statement from the prime minister’s office said it would “allow a basic quantity of food to be brought in for the population in order to make certain that no starvation crisis develops in the Gaza Strip”.
“Such a crisis would endanger the continuation of Operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots’ to defeat Hamas,” it added.
“Israel will act to deny Hamas’s ability to take control of the distribution of humanitarian assistance in order to ensure that the assistance does not reach the Hamas terrorists.”
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Gaza is ‘a slaughterhouse’ says surgeon
It comes after a British surgeon working in Gaza said in a video to Sky News the enclave is now “a slaughterhouse” amid Israeli bombardment.
Israel has just ramped up its offensive in Gaza, with Palestinian health officials reporting at least 130 people were killed overnight into Sunday.
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed troops had begun “extensive ground operations throughout the northern and southern Gaza Strip”.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 464 people had died in Israeli military strikes in the week to Sunday.
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In a statement on Sunday, IDF said its air force struck “over 670 Hamas terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip to disrupt enemy preparations and support ground operations” over the past week.
Israel has launched an escalation to increase pressure on Hamas, seize territory, displace Palestinians to the south and take greater control over the distribution of aid.
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A British surgeon working in southern Gaza has compared the region to a “slaughterhouse” because of the daily bombardment from Israeli forces.
Dr Tom Potokar, who is based at the European Hospital near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, offered his assessment of Israel’s military offensive after Palestinian health officials reported at least 130 people were killed overnight into Sunday.
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have confirmed their troops have begun “extensive ground operations throughout the northern and southern Gaza Strip”.
In a video, Dr Potokar said it was “another day of devastation here in Gaza”, adding: “The stories coming from the north… absolutely horrific… particularly around the Indonesian Hospital.”
“I mean, it’s difficult to describe in words what’s happening here… [with the] constant sound of bombardment jets overhead.
“If Cambodia was the killing fields, then Gaza now is the slaughterhouse.”
Mourners at a funeral of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, at Al Shifa hospital, in Gaza. Pic: Reuters
His reference to Cambodia’s killing fields refers to when more than a million people were murdered in mass executions and buried by the extreme communist guerrilla group, the Khmer Rouge, under Pol Pot, between 1975 and 1979.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 464 people had died in Israeli military strikes in the week to Sunday.
In a statement on Sunday, IDF said its air force struck “over 670 Hamas terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip to disrupt enemy preparations and support ground operations” over the past week.
A family in grief at a funeral on Sunday in Deir al Balah, central Gaza. Pic: Reuters
Dr Potokar described the impact on those on the ground, saying: “We’ve been operating all morning so far and [treating] awful explosive injuries… [including] one young woman with leg fracture and shoulder fracture and a large wound on her buttock, who came in yesterday and is not yet aware that everyone in our family was killed in the onslaught.”
Israel has launched an escalation of its war in Gaza to ramp up pressure on Hamas, seize territory, displace Palestinians to the south and take greater control over the distribution of aid.
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Israel ramps up bombing in Gaza
On Sunday, it announced and launched “extensive” new ground operations in Gaza.
It came after airstrikes killed more than 100 people, including dozens of children, overnight and into Sunday, hospitals and medics said, and forced northern Gaza’s main hospital to close.
A spokesperson for the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said: “Complete families were wiped off the civil registration record by Israeli bombardment”.
The ministry also said the bombardment had forced the closure of the Indonesian Hospital, the main hospital serving people in northern Gaza.
Nasser hospital, in the southern city of Khan Younis, said more than 48 people – mostly women and children – were killed in the area which includes tents sheltering displaced people.
In Deir al Balah, in central Gaza, at least 12 people were killed in three separate strikes, according to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and the Nuseirat camp’s Awda Hospital.
Meanwhile, the Gaza health ministry and the Palestinian Civil Defence – which operates under the Hamas-run government – reported that 19 people were killed in several strikes in Jabalia in northern Gaza.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes.
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Ceasefire talks are taking place in Qatar this weekend – with Israel saying they involve discussions on ending the war as well as a truce and hostage deal.
A statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said any lasting truce must include the demilitarisation of Gaza as well as the exile of Hamas militants.
But a senior Israeli official added there had been little progress so far during talks in Qatar’s capital Doha.
Sky News Arabia reported Hamas had proposed freeing about half its Israeli hostages in exchange for a two-month ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
A Palestinian official close to the discussions said: “Hamas is flexible about the number of hostages it can free, but the problem has always been over Israel’s commitment to end the war.”
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