State of the Union: EU elections plunge France into uncertainty

The European elections are over – and the horse-trading over future alliances, coalitions and top positions has begun.

In meetings, meetings and more meetings, the winners and losers of the verdict of the voters started to get themselves ready for the next five years of legislative battles.

We’ll come back to that in a minute.

But first: it was a week of intense diplomatic activity for Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to the country’s Recovery Conference in Berlin, the G7 summit in Italy and a global peace summit in Switzerland.

He appealed for short-term help in repairing Ukraine’s electricity network, long-term investment in its energy system and he renewed his calls for more help in repelling missile attacks by Russia.

Thanking German lawmakers at the Bundestag for their continuing support, a defiant Zelenskyy made clear what he thinks about compromise with Moscow – and that is next to nothing:

“Russia must be held accountable for the aggression of war. Russia must remove the ruins. Russia must pay for all the damage that has occurred in our country. (…) We will not allow Russia to continue to march through Europe with its contempt for life.”

On a European level, support for Ukraine seems to be assured, as the European elections ushered in the same majority of centrist parties.

At the same time, voters also strengthened the far right, as expected, especially in France.

Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party scored spectacular gains and moved closer to the gates of power in Paris.

This political earthquake let President Emmanuel Macron call for snap elections in just a few weeks.

Some observers believed this to be a high-stake gamble. But Macron called upon moderate forces to unite against extremes on the right and on