The Guardian view on Macron’s snap election: France on the brink

For Marine Le Pen, the more dysfunctional mainstream French politics becomes, the better. Photograph: Mohammed Badra/EPA

Last week, a columnist for Le Monde memorably described Emmanuel Macron’s decision to call a snap parliamentary election as a “choice to play France at poker”. Humiliated by Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party (RN) at this month’s European elections, Mr Macron opted to call the French electorate’s bluff, calculating that the prospect of a radical-right prime minister in the Élysée would “clarify” its thinking.

A week away from the first round of a poll whose consequences will reverberate around Europe, this reckless gamble shows no sign at all of paying off. Quite the opposite. According to one survey, RN could increase its vote share to 36%, a few points up from its historic high on 9 June. Mr Macron’s centrist Together movement languishes in a distant third place, well behind the New Popular Front (NPF), an alliance of leftwing and progressive parties which is set to be the main challenger to Ms Le Pen in numerous contests.