Europe's night of election drama capped by Macron bombshell

France's President Emmanuel Macron has called a bombshell snap parliamentary election after being defeated by the far right in the European elections - in a night of drama that overall saw the centre-right tighten their grip on the EU Parliament.

Mr Macron made the announcement after losing to his rivals Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella and their National Rally party.

France’s result was one of the big gains that Europe’s far-right parties had expected, and confirmation came with all the exit polls giving National Rally more than 30% of the vote, double that of Mr Macron’s centrist Renaissance party. read more