French President Emmanuel Macron suffered a heavy defeat in European elections on Sunday, with Marine Le Pen's right-leaning party sealing a definitive win that underlines her credentials as front-runner for France's 2027 presidential vote.
Le Pen's party won around 32% of the votes, a 10 point increase on the last EU election in 2019 and some 17 points ahead of Macron's party, according to the first exit polls. The Socialists came within a whisker of Macron's ticket, with 14%.
Le Pen and her 28-year-old lead candidate, the increasingly popular Jordan Bardella, had sought to frame the EU election as a mid-term referendum on Macron's mandate, tapping into discontent with immigration, crime and a two-year inflation crisis.
Le Pen's strong showing will weaken Macron's hold on power three years before the end of his final term, could prompt long-shot calls for early French elections but also fires the starting gun in his own camp on the race to succeed him.
The results would translate into 31 seats in the EU parliament for Le Pen's National Rally, 14 seats for Macron's Renaissance and 13 seats for the Socialists led by Raphael Glucksmann, according to an IFOP poll.