The Guardian view on Macron’s gamble: playing with political fire | Editorial

The French president's decision to call a snap parliamentary election, after Marine Le Pen's triumph in European polls, is a fateful moment

Ahead of Sunday's European election results, attention was understandably focused on the impact of a potential far-right surge on the balance of power in Brussels institutions. In the event, the pan-European centre held, just about, with more moderateconservative parties generally enjoying agood night. But that was not even close to being the main headline of the evening.

Emmanuel Macron's shock decision to call snap legislative elections, after a humiliating defeat at the hands of Marine Le Pen's National Rally party (RN), is a gamble of the highest order, taken from a position of weakness. Even by the standards of a president who created his own movement to demolish the traditional centre-left and centre-right, it is a surprisingly risky move. In a Sunday evening address, Mr Macron told the nation that it was a necessary one in order to clarify" aresult that saw the extreme right win a combined 40% of the vote. That clarification, when it comes on 7July, may or may not be welcome.