French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday he did not think his decision to dissolve parliament and call for new parliamentary elections would spoil the mood ahead of next month's Olympic Games.
"French people have no wish for the Olympic Games to not take place," said Macron, speaking at a G7 summit in Italy.
The snap election, called at very short notice by Macron after his centrist alliance was trounced by the far-right National Rally in Sunday's European Parliament ballot, has upended French politics, with parties rushing to field candidates and prepare platforms.
Opinion polls project that Marine Le Pen's RN could, for the first time, top the June 30 and July 7 vote but without enough seats to win an absolute majority and govern on its own.
The RN has been kept out of power for decades by voters mistrustful of the far right and its radical policies, as well as by a decades-old consensus among mainstream parties to join forces against it.
But under the helm of Le Pen and new party leader Jordan Bardella, they have worked to detoxify their image and woo a growing number of voters across the board.
