The snap election called by President Emmanuel Macron after Sunday's bruising loss to the far-right in European Parliament elections will be France's most fateful legislative vote in decades, its finance minister said on Monday.
www.ctvnews.ca
Macron's shock decision amounts to a roll of the dice on his political future and that of France. It immediately sent the euro down, also hitting French stocks and government bonds.
If the eurosceptic, anti-immigration RN did score a majority, Macron would remain president for three more years and continue to be in charge of defence and foreign policy.
But he would lose the power to set the domestic agenda, ranging from economic policy to security and immigration.