France’s president calls for new elections after EU vote
French President Emmanuel Macron, who suffered a crushing defeat by the far-right in the European elections, dissolved the lower house of parliament yesterday. He called for parliamentary elections starting on June 30.
Macron’s decision was a measure of the disastrous nature of the European Parliament election results. His centrist party was poised to finish with about half the support of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally, which is set to become France’s top party.
“The rise of nationalists and demagogues is a danger to our nation and to Europe,” Macron said. “After this day I can’t go on like nothing happened.”
Early forecasts for the European Parliament elections, conducted by 27 countries in the EU, appeared to show strong gains for several far-right parties. If confirmed, the results would amount to a strong measure of voter discontent and a scathing rebuke to the political mainstream. Live results follow.
“The move was not widely expected and its implications are still unclear, so it’s a bit hard to say with certainty why Macron decided to make this move now,” my colleague Aurelien Breeden, who covers France, told me. “But his domestic agenda has been stymied by a weak majority in the lower house of parliament for the past two years, and a strong far-right showing seems to have convinced him that he could no longer carry on with business as usual.”
The rise of the right: Right-wing parties made gains as voters focused on nationalism and identity — issues often associated with immigration and some culture war policies. Lingering anger over Covid policies may also have played a role.
More about France: of Macron The decision comes weeks before the summer Olympics begin in Paris in July and ushers in a period of deep political uncertainty in France.
In German: Alternative for Germany, a far-right party officially designated as a “suspected” extremist group by the country’s authorities, performed strongly. The predicted results will make it Germany’s second largest party.
Benny Gantz resigns from the government of Israel
Israeli politician Benny Gantz, a key member of the war cabinet, resigned yesterday from the government over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza. The move is unlikely to force Netanyahu to resign, but Ganj’s moderate positions have helped boost the government’s international credibility.
Last month, Gantz threatened to resign unless Netanyahu worked to immediately address key questions, including the return of hostages and the future governance of Gaza. Without Gantz’s party, the prime minister’s government will consist of the right-wing Likud party, two far-right parties and two ultra-Orthodox factions. Analysts said Gantz’s departure could embolden far-right coalition ministers.
The war: Israel’s operation to rescue four hostages in central Gaza on Saturday unleashed heavy aerial bombardment and ground operations that killed more than 200 people, according to two hospital officials in the area.
In Israel: The euphoria of the rescue quickly gave way to a harsh reality. About 120 captives remain in Gaza and Israelis fear time is running out to rescue the hostages – about a quarter of them have already been declared dead by Israeli authorities.
In central Gaza: Satellite images show new tent cities rising as people who fled Rafah moved again.
Modi begins a third term
A humbled Narendra Modi was yesterday sworn in for a third term as Prime Minister of India. He is taking a more moderate tone now that he has been forced into a coalition government and lost his parliamentary majority.
In a speech on Friday he struck a conciliatory tone: “To run the government, a majority is required. But to run the nation, a consensus is necessary.” He has also publicly paraded his main coalition partners at events. But the question remains: Can Modi really become a consensus builder, something he hasn’t been for more than two decades in his election?
How did it happen: Here’s a map of where he won and lost voters.
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Cricket World Cup T20
India beat Pakistan yesterday in the International Cricket Council Men’s T20 World Cup hosted at Long Island, outside New York. India won by six runs: Batting first, they scored 119 to Pakistan’s 113.
Geopolitical tensions heightened the rivalry between the two cricketing nations and the viewership was expected to be huge. Indeed, matches between the two countries are rare — they do not cooperate outside of ICC events due to political enmity. More than 400 million people, more than three times the number of Super Bowl viewers this year, were expected to watch.
New York might have been a surprising choice of location. Indeed, the field was built just for the event and will be gone after the tournament. But the U.S. was hosted, along with the West Indies, to try to drive the growth of cricket in the U.S. Profits from the New York games will go a long way toward increasing awareness of the sport.
Record: Pakistan had a shocking loss against Team USA. Some commentators called the upset one of the biggest in the history of the sport.
