Germany reacts to the announcement of the dissolution of the National Assembly by Emmanuel Macron

In Germany, while the ruling party suffered a setback in the European elections, reactions to Emmanuel Macron’s announcement of dissolution are increasing.

The announcement of the dissolution of the National Assembly by Emmanuel Macron, after the European elections, Sunday June 9, caused a shock wave. The populist wave is not only affecting France: in Brussels, Berlin and Rome, the far right is also making a surge.

Nationalist and Eurosceptic parties are making a clear breakthrough in many leading countries, for example in Austria, where the FPO, which sits with the National Rally, is credited with 27% of the votes and becomes for the first time the leading party in the country. This surge is also being seen in Germany, where the AFD is in second position behind the right. In the Netherlands, the Party for Freedom of Europhobe Geert Wilders is second, just after the Alliance of Socialists and Greens. Finally in Italy, Fratelli d’Italia, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, also won this election.

In Germany, the ruling party, the coalition of Chancellor Olaf Scholz also suffered a setback. Reactions are multiplying across the Rhine regarding the dissolution of the National Assembly in France. For the DPA agency, it is a “poker move” which Emmanuel Macron has just achieved. But many editorialists believe that the head of state no longer had much choice in the face of the surge of the National Rally and a France that had become ungovernable. With a National Assembly where we shout, where we argue, many French people “have the feeling that we are not acting in a manner worthy of the place”, notes the press. Unlike Germany, it is more of a culture of combat and confrontation.

What solution remained for an unpopular president “in a large part of rural France, far from Paris, which feels abandoned, forgotten by politics”note the South German Zeitung. Obviously, the maneuver is risky, but “this is the non-conformist side of Macron”underlines again Der Spiegel. Act, dare, taking the risk that things go wrong.

Do not remain a passive spectator like Olaf Scholz, the chancellor whose camp has just recorded the worst score in its history in the European elections: 14% of the votes, or 2 points less compared to 2019, and less 12 points compared to in the 2021 federal elections which brought him to power. Friedrich Merz, the chairman of the leading Conservative Party, called the result a disaster for the coalition and called for political change in Germany. Would Olaf Scholz also dissolve, asks DPA, the main German press agency? No, replies the journalist. On Sunday evening, Olaf Scholz quietly took selfies with his comrades, as if nothing had happened.