good evening. we start with the european elections. it's still early with exit polls coming in from around europe, but we've had our first projection of what the next european parliament will look like, and in many countries, far—right parties have made big gains. exit polls show a historic win for marine le pen�*s national rally in france and is on course to trounce president macron�*s party. far—right parties have also made substantial gains in austria and germany. exit polls say 27 countries voting, most of them since thursday, 373 million people were eligible to vote. that is considerably more than the 244 million who will be taking part in the united states in november. so, this is a very big deal, not only because it will set the direction for this parliament at a critical time in europe, with war in ukraine, the economy stuttering, migration a major concern for many, but because what happens in this election so often has a bearing on the direction of domestic politics in each of these 27 countries. of course, some countries have more influence than others. the bigger your country, the more seats you get in the hemicycle chamber. germany gets 96, france 81, malta, cyprus and luxembourg six each. remember, they don't sit according to nationality, they sit within broad international groupings. marine le pen spoke earlier. translation: psi marine le pen spoke earlier. translation:— marine le pen spoke earlier. translation: �* . ., translation: at the french have soken translation: at the french have spoken and _ translation: at the french have spoken and this _ translation: at the french have spoken and this historic— translation: at the french have spoken and this historic election i spoken and this historic election shows that when the people vote, the people when. by giving more than 32% of the national rally, the french have given us the highest score. combined in a a0 years. it is a real emotion to see this beautiful popular force rising emotion to see this beautiful popularforce rising up around the country. here's the leader of the national rally party, jordan bardella. translation: manual macron is toniuht a translation: manual macron is tonight a weakened _ translation: manual macron is tonight a weakened president. i tonight a weakened president. already deprived of an absolute majority in the french assembly, now restricted in his means of action within the european parliament. the french president must choose to give in to the spirit of the institutions. we solemnly ask him to take note of this new political situation, to return to the french people and to organise a new legislative elections. those are the key faces coming from france. let's bet it all into context. let's put that into context — with our correspondent in paris, hugh schofield. macron decided that the results were so heavy against him that he would take this dramatic step. we were being told about half an hour ago that macron was going to make some kind of intervention this evening, which is unusual because not normally a president would do that, he's certainly never done that, and we were speculating what could he possibly announce? and we wondering, could it be a dissolution of parliament? and it is a dissolution of parliament. so this is massive news. what he said, and i was just trying to listen to it there, was that, you know, one had to respect the opinion of the people. the debate needed clarity now, politics needed more clarity so he was dissolving the parliament and there will be elections at the end ofjune and the beginning ofjuly. it is a two—round election but they will be on the 30th ofjune and 7th ofjuly. i mean, it's a massive risk for him. already he does not have a majority in parliament, so he is struggling to get through with any legislative programme. if he is thinking that, you know, at this election he will be able to sort of increase his majority, get back a majority, you know, i think he is being very, very optimistic. i mean, logically, after this vote, we should see a big vote for the national rally at the parliamentary elections and see them forming the next government, so it could well be that in a few weeks from now we have jordan bardella or marine le pen as prime minister of this country. i mean, it does sound absolutely extraordinary, and, you know, that is not a given. it may well be that the results come in differently for the parliamentary election, it may well be that macron has calculated well. european elections, you know, the national rally, the far right will do well because it can be an easy sanction vote against the powers that be and that in a real legislative election vote for a parliament they won't do so well, but again that is an extremely risky line to take. so, you know, if logically people will vote again in the same way, we will have a big, the far right, or the hard right, the populists will be a majority in parliament and we will have a populist prime minister and a cohabitation, as they say, you know, a new era of a president of one camp and a parliamentary leader and a prime minister to another camp, which, you know, can work but often leads to, you know, a very sterile period of politics. we can get immediate reaction from hugh schofield, we will be getting further reaction from him shortly, do stay with us for that. in the meantime, let's hear what the french president had to say. translation: president had to say. tuna/mom- president had to say. translation: the rise of nationalists _ translation: the rise of nationalists is _ translation: the rise of nationalists is a _ translation: the rise of nationalists is a danger. translation: the rise of| nationalists is a danger for translation: the rise of - nationalists is a danger for our nationalists is a dangerfor our nationalists is a dangerfor our nation but also europe, france's position in europe and the world and i say this even though we have just celebrated with the whole world the normandy landing and as in a few weeks we welcome the world for the olympic and paralympic games. yes, the far right as both the result of the far right as both the result of the impoverishment of the french and the impoverishment of the french and the downgrading of our country, is at the end of the day cannot act as though nothing happened. added to the situation is a fever which has gripped public and parliamentary debate in our country in recent years and the sort of which i know worries you, sometimes it shocks you and to which i do not intend to give in. however, today, the challenges that present themselves to us, whether external dangers, climate change and its consequences or threats to our own cohesion, these challenges require clarity in our debates. ambition for the country and respect for every french person,. this is why, i have decided to put it back in your hands at the choice of our parliamentary future by the vote. in a few moments i will sign the decree for convening the legislative elections which will be held on june legislative elections which will be held onjune 30th, the first round, and july seven for the second round. that was a manual macron they're speaking soon after results started to be published. let's speak to our paris correspondent hugh schofield. we spoke to you immediately once we realised that that news had broken. since then, it has been a good hour, how has this news been received in france? ~ , ., , how has this news been received in france? ~ ,, , , ~ france? well, everyone is shocked and surprised- _ france? well, everyone is shocked and surprised. i _ france? well, everyone is shocked and surprised. i say _ france? well, everyone is shocked and surprised. i say everyone, - france? well, everyone is shocked and surprised. i say everyone, and| and surprised. i say everyone, and it is everyone because even the people who are supposed to know about these things, such as the pundits on the talk shows, in the minutes leading up to the president's dress, they were asking themselves what could it all be about and it was beginning to dawn that maybe he could be calling a snap election but it was the furthest from the thought because the presumption was it would be a totally rash thing to do and so full of risk for his project that it would be unthinkable. but it turns out that macon has done what he loves doing which is surprise people and act with doing things and taking them by surprise and putting people on the back foot, and i think he is playing up to his own image as being a figure of politics he will do the unexpected even if it sounds quite suicidal. it is not suicidal in the sense that we are obviously all now fixated by this very, very big far right wing or populist right—wing at the european elections, but it is not necessarily the case this will be replicated at the parliamentary elections. he will go through the next few weeks and his party will go through the next few weeks saying all good people of a sound mind and views that should come together now to keep out the far right and in so doing, he will be preparing for what he hopes it may be a new coalition of his own party and may be the one side, some soft left on the other. —— the republicans on one side. and so there will be some centrist bloc, but it is a very risky proposition because nothing suggests that there will not be another victory for the far right who have done so well consistently in recent years. against whom the old source of fear and the old sort of project fear just does not work any more. there are parts of the country where 50, 60 5% of the population vote for the hard right, i'm talking about areas outside the big cities, so for them and the country as a whole, the idea that you can still bandy around the threat of fascism and resu rgents resurgents does not work, so it is risky that they will be up to form a government. it risky that they will be up to form a government-— risky that they will be up to form a government. it is in two stages, all cominu government. it is in two stages, all coming before _ government. it is in two stages, all coming before the _ government. it is in two stages, all coming before the olympics. - government. it is in two stages, all coming before the olympics. whatl government. it is in two stages, all. coming before the olympics. what was turnouts like? tum coming before the olympics. what was turnouts like?— turnouts like? turn today was at about i think _ turnouts like? turn today was at about i think 48%, _ turnouts like? turn today was at about i think 48%, around - turnouts like? turn today was at about i think 48%, around 50%,| turnouts like? turn today was at. about i think 4896, around 5096, not about i think a8%, around 50%, not hype but not particularly high and i think slightly better than last time. these elections, not these european elections, but national elections take place over two rounds, the first round as an all—party round in which people go for the party which most closely reflects their personal point of view, there will be ten, 11, maybe 12 parties competing for that i2 parties competing for that first—round boat and the normally two or possibly three will qualify for the second round and that is when you normally get the hard right against another party. what you might find though, and it will be interesting to see, if in the run—up to these elections there aren't alliances formed what kind of blocking alliances formed with parties with people from the right saying we are not going to stand here because we want all the votes to go to the centre or whatever. it has been done in the past to try to keep out the hard right. frankly i think it is highly unlikely it will work today, partly because it will give rise to even greater cynicism among the public towards the mainstream parties and partly because the parties themselves can't agree on this thing, they are very divided, they are squabbling. the only party that has done well as of tonight is the hard right, the national rally, the populist right and they did not have to say anything, theyjust have to look at all the other party squabbling to see how the future is brightening for them by the minute. ok. see how the future is brightening for them by the minute. 0k, thank ou ve for them by the minute. 0k, thank you very much _ for them by the minute. 0k, thank you very much for _ for them by the minute. 0k, thank you very much for that. _ for them by the minute. 0k, thank you very much for that. that - for them by the minute. 0k, thank you very much for that. that is - for them by the minute. 0k, thank i you very much for that. that is hugh schofield there with the picture coming to us from france where emmanuel macron has dissolved parliament following those exit poll results in the european parliament elections. taking a look at the results from germany where the far—right has made gains as well. 0ur correspondent damien mcguinness has more. this is a disasterfor german chancellor 0laf scholz, much worse than was expected. partly because as well disastrous for him personally because his face was all over the country on those election posters. he really pushed himself forward in the campaign, even though he is not running himself in the european union parliamentary elections, but he was the big face of the campaign so this really is on him, this big defeat. and i think what we're going to see now are, there has already been a lot of internal wrangling within the three coalition parties, within that very argumentative coalition, we are going to see even more arguments within that coalition because each of those parties now is going to be fighting for survival with key regional elections coming up in eastern germany in september. they are going to be tough because the afd could well become the strongest force, the far right could well become the strongest force in those elections, and of course we have the national elections next year, so when you have a three—way coalition which anyway, you know, is already an uneasy alliance and if all three of those parties are feeling with their backs to the wall, they're going to fight even harder for their grassroots voters and they're going to fight even harder for what they feel they believe and what they want in order to stay alive, effectively. so we're going to have a rocky time here in germany politically and i think we are going to see a particularly difficult time for the government. and of course, this has now, as you said, christian, shifted to the right essentially. the conservatives are in theory the leaders, but, you know, they've only got 30%. this was once a very powerful party, so they're not doing quite as well they should be doing, given how unpopular the government is. the real winners are the far right, the afd, who are incredibly radical and everyone's surprised they've done as well as they have done given the number of scandals connected to them, and a new upstart, anti—migrant radical left party which is also eating into those mainstream voters. so, a lot going on in german politics and i think it's just going to get rockier going forward over the next year with those big elections coming up. let's speak to our reporter 0lga malchevska, who is at the eu headquarters in london. hello. how has the evening panned out, what is the reaction like so far? ., , ., , ., far? people here in the european parliament _ far? people here in the european parliament are _ far? people here in the european parliament are still _ far? people here in the european parliament are still digesting, . far? people here in the european| parliament are still digesting, big news coming from france. 0bviously news coming from france. obviously the french parliament has been solved and also quite a gain of the far right with marine le pen. we have been hearing that marine le pen's party has got 31.5%, which was expected i would say, experts here have even been expecting 35%, so the result was quite high for the far right, to put it mildly. and the turnout in france was quite big, with 51% of people heading to the election polls. i must say that is just an estimate, just a projection. and looking at that projection, we see that the same party, which was given the majority, are still keeping that majority so far. so the dpp will have 183 seats with renewed europe getting 82 seats within national projections. this pays out to a situation where we see the top three parties remain the same. it is not the end of the evening yet, so we don't know what will happen next, because some countries are still voting and we are still getting results and we are expecting the more accurate results at ten o'clock london time, but what we are seeing now is less concerned because we are seeing the far right are not getting the majority of the seats in the european parliament so far, although even despite their significant gains in france. and other interesting thing is that it is the first european parliament election after brexit, so the first european parliament election being held without the uk and i asked about the numbers come at the statistics about how many european parliament votes have been taken in the uk, and there are no statistics because there are around 5 million european citizens who have applied for the uk settlement scheme, but it is not clear how many of those people are registered to vote and what are their preferences because of the differences in the election and voting process. some citizens can vote by post and then they stamped their vote to the local government, some of them are coming to the voting polls. we will see the exact results at ten o'clock london time so let's take it from there. ok. results at ten o'clock london time so let's take it from there. 0k, we will do, so let's take it from there. 0k, we will do. thank _ so let's take it from there. 0k, we will do, thank you. _ let's go to sports headquarters now. we start with a history making win for carlos alcaraz — the new french open champion — who at the age of 21 is the youngest man to win grand slams on all three surfaces after he beat alexander zverev in a gripping five—set final at roland garos. alcaraz, who's previously won the us open and wimbledon, made the better start to the match, winning the opening set. there were nerves from both, but zverev, hoping to win his first grand slam title, took the next two and looked on course for victory, only for the spanish third seed to find another gear. he only lost three games in the final two sets as he fulfilled what he called his childhood dream and emulated one of his heroes and compatriot rafael nadal. earlier on sunday, the us open champion coco gauff and katerina siniakova won the women's doubles title with a straight sets victory over sara errani and jasmine paolini, who lost the singles final on saturday. it's gauff�*s first grand slam doubles title. at cricket�*s t20 world cup, india have beaten pakistan by six runs in new york. india were bowled out forjust 119 in 19 overs with rishabh pant top scoring with a2. in response, pakistan looked well set at 73—2 but when they lost muhammad rizwan and shadab khan in quick succession, they slipped to 88—5, and didn't have enough batting power to see them over the line. elswhere, scotland comfortably beat 0man by seven wickets to get their second win of the tournament, putting them in a strong position to make it through to the super 8's. normal service resumed for formula one championship leader max vertsappen as he won a rain—affected canadian grand prix. the world champion could only manage sixth at the monaco grand prix a fortnight ago. he missed out on pole to george russell at montreal, but the changeable conditions saw two safety cars and the dutchman was able to get ahead during pit stops. in a thrilling battle behind him, lando norris claimed s