Good morning. Macron rolls the dice as Europe swings right – more on that below, along with Calgary’s water restrictions and chatty elephants. But first:
Today’s headlines
- Liberals will support motion to turn foreign collusion allegations over to inquiry
- Blinken says Hamas signal of support for UN-backed Gaza truce deal is ‘hopeful sign’
- Beverley McLachlin to retire from seat on Hong Kong’s highest appellate court when term ends
France's far-right National Rally supporters were pretty stoked on Sunday night.Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters
Europe votes
Signs of a power shift
On Sunday night, at a tony party held on Paris’s eastern edge, bottles of Chardonnay cooled in ice buckets, wedges of cheese fanned out on platters and a live feed of Emmanuel Macron played on a video screen. As the French President dissolved the legislature for a surprise snap election, the crowd – supporters of Marine Le Pen’s hard-right National Rally – broke into cries of “Dissolution! Dissolution!”
They might as well have been chanting “disillusion” instead. Macron’s announcement followed huge losses for his party in the elections for the European Parliament – the EU body that shapes laws on everything from climate and AI to migration and trade.
Macron’s centrists netted less than half of the National Rally’s vote, and they were hardly alone. Across Europe, voters punished the ruling centrist parties and handed more power to the once-fringe, now-pretty-fashionable far right.
Under the influence
Europe’s rightward slide is nothing new, and Ursula von der Leyen, president of the EU’s executive arm, has already made accommodations. In the past year, she joined far-right Italian PM Giorgia Meloni on trips to Tunisia and Egypt, cutting deals to curb the flow of migrants by sea.
And though she was one of the champions of the European Green Deal, “Ms. von der Leyen is talking far less about the climate and the environment than she used to,” The Globe’s European bureau chief, Eric Reguly, told me. “Perhaps that’s because the right, and even her own centre-right European People’s Party, fear the policies are costly and will destroy jobs.”
There’s real concern that Sunday’s results could water down climate policies even further. Five years ago, during the last EU parliamentary elections, Green parties had their strongest-ever showing, landing a kingmaker role that helped shape the union’s environmental ambitions. This time around, the Greens suffered a serious drubbing that leaves them without influence.
The new face of the far right
Of course, getting anything done requires some semblance of unity, and Europe’s hard-right parties have been guilty of in-fighting – so don’t expect wholesale change all at once. Don’t assume the younger generation will course-correct this rightward slide, either.
“There is no doubt that voters in their 20s and 30s are helping to fuel the rise of the far right,” Eric told me. “The popularity of those parties is no longer confined to angry old men.”
As for Macron, he might be banking that a snap election will catch the National Rally flat-footed; he may believe that, however angry voters are with him, they won’t let Marine Le Pen head up the French government. But it’s a gamble, especially where the next gen is concerned.
“Many young voters think the mainstream centrist parties have no new ideas on how to hand them the opportunities – and cheap rent – that their parents enjoyed,” Eric said. “They think their time is up.”
The Shot
Call him by his name
The one on the left? Elmer.George Wittemyer/The Associated Press
A new study of wild elephants in Kenya has found they make different rumbling vocalizations to signify different names. Read about how they tell their Babars from their Hortons here.
The Wrap
What else we’re following
At home: With repair work to a broken water main set to last all week, Calgarians still have to limit their baths and showers (though five-year-old Alexander Aubichon didn’t really seem to mind).
Abroad: Is your inbox feeling a little empty? Sign up for Trump’s or Biden’s campaign fundraising e-mails, and you’ll never know a moment’s silence again.
On the ice: Canadian forward Sarah Fillier has three world titles and an Olympic gold medal. Now’s she’s the PWHL’s No. 1 draft pick, too.
In the overhead bin: Not this trunk luggage, which is making a travel comeback. (But it’s not like there’s room up there for your carry-on, either.)
A quick correction: Yesterday’s newsletter on Narendra Modi’s coalition government referred to the United party. It should have been Janata Dal (United).