Macron hopes to contain far right in national elections after it surged in EU vote. It’s a risky bet

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN and BARBARA SURK
Associated Press

French President Emmanuel Macron called snap legislative elections after his pro-European party was handed a chastening defeat and projected to garner less than half the support of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally. He hopes that voters will band together to contain the far right in national elections in a way they didn’t in European ones. But it’s a risky bet. It could result in the French far right leading a government for the first time since World War II. Macron would then have to find a way to work with a prime minister from a party that deeply opposes most of his policies.