Catherine Field: France Correspondent on President Emmanuel Macron calling for a snap election after the European Union election

The far right has more seats in European Parliament, but the centre remains in control.  

French President Emmanuel Macron has dissolved parliament and called a snap election after a defeat to Marine Le Pen's National Rally in the EU elections.  

Far right gains were also seen in Italy and Germany.  

France correspondent Catherine Field told Mike Hosking that all eyes are on France, a major player in Europe. 

She says it's central to the European Union and it's in turmoil politically. 

Catherine Field says whatever happens in France directly affects the EU. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right center of the world at the moment, it seems
in France, Catherine feel very good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
To you, Good morning mine.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
So the day after do we have a hangover as
Macron going, oh my lord, what did I do? Or
are we full steam ahead here?

Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'm not sure what the President of the Republic is thinking,
but I think the rest of France is thinking, what
a gamble? What has he done? Yes, we spoke what
just about this time yesterday Mike, and no one could
understand why he was doing it. We're getting a clearer
picture of why he decided to do it. He felt

(00:32):
as though he had been pushed into a corner. He
doesn't like this. He'd apparently been thinking about having an
election in the parliamentary elections in the autumn sort of
September October period, but decided at the end of the
day the country's quite well off at the moment. Everyone's
feeling a bit up and try and catch the opposition

(00:52):
on the hop and get everyone out to vote. You know,
everyone's still wandering around thinking, well, is this going to say?
So we need the problems and we've just had first
projections in on how the parliament would work out, and yes, Okay,
this is the first poll, but it's looking as though, yes, Mahine,
the Pen's Party will get a majority of seats, but

(01:14):
will fall short of having a majority in parliament. So
we could be going through all this, Mike, and then
end up with a coalition minority government. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
See what happens in this particular part of the world
has done throughout history is if you call a snap election,
you've got to have a really good reason for it,
or else generally at the polls you'll be punished. Is
that the Simon front.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Well, the good reason that he had was Mike this
whole Ever since he came to power for the second
time in twenty twenty two, we've had deadlock in the parliament,
the parliamentary elections for a couple of weeks later, he
hasn't had a majority in parliament, so he hasn't been
able to get any of his big legislation through. Every time,
it's had to be trading this, get set this policy

(01:57):
against that. We've had things like the budget has had
to be pushed through by decree. Earlier this year we
had the immigration bill put through and he put so
much of it through that in the end it went
to the Constitutional Council and they threw out a lot
of the clauses that Muhin la Pen's party put in there,
so it couldn't go on. He'd been facing a lot

(02:17):
of censure motions in parliament. He there was a question mark.
Remember we spoke about this last week when that downgrade
four the economy came in. He was going to have
trouble getting his budget through come in November. So it
was a bad time. None of the none of them.
If you like, the lights were flashing green, that's going

(02:39):
to be okay. It was all saying warning, warning ahead, Okay.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
What's the vibe generally, Catherine? The Greens got hit badly.
I know there's angst around the climate change policies of
the European Union. The Belgian Prime Minister's quit because of it.
Oh Of Schultz is under tremendous pressure now because his
party got a trouncing as well. What's the vibe?

Speaker 2 (02:59):
The vibe? It is thank goodness at least that this
Center for the European Parliament has helped. That was a
big relief. Yes, here in France it looks bad because
the far right did so well, but the vibers Okay,
they've kept parliament to the European Parliament. The Greens aren't
as strong as they were. There is a question about

(03:21):
the budget. How's this going to work? But I think
again we come back to France, that major country right
in Europe is central to the European Union in turmoil
at the moment politically, and whatever happens in France will
directly fic whatever is going to happen in the EU.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
I think that the truth nice to catch up with you.
We'll see next Tuesday. Caps from field in France for
US this Morning.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
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