Macron’s Mistakes Will Haunt France — and Europe
French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to call snap elections has left him the lame-duck president of a rump political movement. France now looks headed for a hung Parliament — or one governed by the right-wing National Rally party. Either way, the likely result is a more fragmented polity, economic stagnation and government gridlock.
French voters hammered the political center on Sunday. Marine Le Pen’s National Rally won around a third of the votes, followed by a grouping of left-wing parties promising budgetary extravagances.