By Michel Rose and Tassilo Hummel

PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron put his political future at stake on Sunday, calling early parliamentary elections for later this month after suffering a crushing defeat in the European Union vote by Marine Le Pen’s far-right party.

Macron’s surprise decision triggered a political earthquake in France, giving the far right a chance at real political power after years of isolation and threatening to undermine Macron’s presidency three years before it was due to end.

If Le Pen’s party Rassemblement National (RN) wins the parliamentary majority, Macron would have little influence on internal affairs.

Macron said the result of the EU vote was grim for his government and one he could not ignore. Addressing the nation less than two months before the Paris Olympics, he said the general election would be held on June 30, with a runoff on July 7.

“This is a crucial moment for clarification,” Macron said. “I have heard your message, your concerns, and I will not leave them unanswered… France needs a clear majority to act in serenity and harmony.”

Following Macron’s announcement, several hundred protesters against the extreme right gathered on Paris’ Place de la République, waving flags of green and left-wing groups and chanting against the RN.

Led by the telegenic 28-year-old Jordan Bardella, the RN won around 32 percent of the vote in Sunday’s vote, more than double Macron’s 15 percent, according to polls. The Socialists were just a hair behind Macron at 14 percent.

Le Pen, who is widely seen as the frontrunner for the 2027 elections in which Macron cannot run, welcomed his decision.

“We are ready to take power if the French put their trust in us in the upcoming national elections,” she said at a rally.

Macron’s Renaissance party currently has 169 of the 577 lower house MPs. The RN has 88.

If the RN wins the majority, Macron would still determine defense and foreign policy, but he would lose the power to set the domestic agenda – from economic to security policy.

“Emmanuel Macron is a poker player, we saw that tonight,” said Green MP Sandrine Rousseau.

Uncomfortable coexistence

Consulting firm Teneo said: “Macron has called elections that he could lose.”

It said that his ultimate “goal could be to bring about a victory for the RN in time to expose the party’s lack of governing experience and force it to face politically painful choices before the 2027 presidential election.”

Olivier Blanchard, a former International Monetary Fund official now at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said Macron made the best of his weak cards.

“Either the incoherence of the RN program will become clear during the election campaign and the RN will lose the election. Or the RN will win, be allowed to govern and quickly destroy everything,” he wrote on X.

Macron’s move is reminiscent of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s move last year to call early parliamentary elections after the far right crushed his party in local elections.

Sanchez managed to stay in power, but only after months of disputes with regional parties and a controversial agreement to grant amnesty to Catalan separatists.

France has already experienced phases of what is known as “cohabitation,” in which the president belonged to a different political party than the parliamentary majority. In such cases, the prime minister of the majority party became the most important domestic policy-maker in France.

In the last of this period, from 1997 to 2002, President Jacques Chirac played second fiddle to Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.

The euro fell to its lowest in about a month in early trading in Asia, reflecting uncertainty.

Macron’s decision underlined what a dark night it was for centrist parties across Europe, with Eurosceptic nationalists making the biggest gains in the European elections.

The battle for succession is becoming increasingly heated

Le Pen’s strong election result, which gave her a 10 percent increase over her 2019 EU result, is likely to attract conservative rebels to the RN, a party with a clear sense of dynamism.

On Sunday evening, Le Pen’s niece Marion Marechal, a political ally of Eric Zemmour and his far-right Reconquete party, said she was ready to meet with her aunt to explore the possibility of an agreement.

“A coalition of the right seems to me more necessary than ever,” said Marechal.

Le Pen’s rise is also likely to give new momentum to the centrist succession struggle for Macron.

Several big names – including Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, current Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire – are vying for the top job, according to political sources.

“We must look within ourselves and explain to the French why we have not been able to listen to them sufficiently,” Darmanin said before Macon’s announcement.

Sunday’s results also showed a resurgence of the French centre-left. Socialist candidate Raphael Glucksmann, a moderate, pro-Ukrainian candidate, won about 14 percent. His strong showing will embolden the Socialists, who were on the verge of collapse after Macron’s 2017 election victory.

(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel and Michel Rose, text by Gabriel Stargardter, editing by William Maclean and Keith Weir)