CHANGE: Far-right gains in EU election deal stunning defeats to France’s Macron and Germany’s Scholz.

An initial projection provided by the European Union indicated far-right parties have made big gains at the European Parliament.

In France, the National Rally party of Marine Le Pen dominated the polls to such an extent that Macron immediately dissolved the national parliament and called for new elections, a massive political risk since his party could suffer more losses, hobbling the rest of his presidential term that ends in 2027.
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Macron acknowledged the thud of defeat. “I’ve heard your message, your concerns, and I won’t leave them unanswered,” he said, adding that calling a snap election only underscored his democratic credentials.

In Germany, the most populous nation in the 27-member bloc, projections indicated that the AfD overcame a string of scandals involving its top candidate to rise to 16.5%, up from 11% in 2019. In comparison, the combined result for the three parties in the German governing coalition barely topped 30%.

European governments have been so bad for so long that it’s impossible to tell whether any changes will lead to improvements or if they’ll be just as bad but in new ways.