A French ‘referendum’ on the far right: Will Macron’s risky gamble pay off?

The president is trying to push back against Le Pen’s party, but experts warn there is potential for strategy to backfire.

President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to call early parliamentary elections in response to his crushing defeat in a European Union vote is a risky gamble that few could have predicted, observers tell Al Jazeera, as they describe the snap polls as a referendum on the far right.

Yielding a call from the far-right candidate Jordan Bardella, whose National Rally party won 31.5 percent of the vote in the European Parliament elections on Sunday, Macron dissolved the French Parliament and ordered snap elections.

The first round will be held on June 30 and a second on July 7.

Analysts said it is a high-stakes attempt to regain credibility after Macron’s liberal Renaissance party trailed behind National Rally in second place with about half its level of support – just 14.6 percent.

According to Gilles Ivaldi, professor at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, or Sciences Po, Macron is hoping the votes of his detractors lack substance.