fraser. good morning, welcome to brussels. boats are still being counted here at the european parliament. it very much feels like the morning after that i before, is a bleary eyes. i can see journalists asleep at the desks, surrounded by the detritus of half eaten food, bottles of water and quite a lot of coffee. no question what a story of the night was, the shift across the continent to the right. the hard right performing well in austria, the netherlands, germany. not so well in poland and slovakia. and, of course, the headline news overnight is the fact that president macron has called that snap election in france, where the national rally took 32% of the vote, compared to his party's 14%. that is a record performance for the national rally. it left the president, in his view, with no option but to dissolve parliament and call a snap election. translation: the rise - of nationalists and demagogues is a dangerfor our nation, but also for europe. i say this even though we have just celebrated with the whole world the normandy landing, and in a few weeks we welcome the world for the olympic and paralympic games. yes, the far right is both the result of the impoverishment of the french and the downgrading of our country. so at the end of this day, i cannot act as if nothing had happened. added to this situation is a fever which has gripped parliamentary and public debate in our country in recent years, the sort of which i know worries you, sometimes 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 the consequences, or threats to our own cohesion, it requires clarity in our debates. ambition for the country and respect for every french person. this is why, after having carried out the consultations provided for in article 12 of our constitution, i decided to put back in your hands the choice of our parliamentary future. in a few moments, i will sign the decree convening the parliamentary elections which will take place onjune 30th for the first round, and july 7th for the second round. in party headquarters, that caused a sharp intake of breath. at marine le pen's election party, there was celebration, with many people shouting dissolution, dissolution. marine le pen took to the stage and this is what she had to say. translation: the french have spoken and this historic election shows - that when the people vote, the people win. by giving more than 32% to the national rally, the french have just given us their highest score, all parties combined, in a0 years. it is a real emotion to see this beautiful popularforce rising up throughout the country. i can't remember a party getting over 30% in any election in france, certainly not in recent memory. let's look at the map. this map shows the communes right across france. the brown is the national rally. you can see that bar paris and some of the metropolitan communities around france, it is almost a whitewash right across the country, which tells you what an enormous gamble all this is going to be. nick beake explained why president macron had taken the country by surprise in calling a snap election. huge political bombshell in france. president macron last night during a tv address and said that he simply couldn't ignore the fact that so many people had voted for the far—right party, for the national rally of marine le pen. in fact, they got double the number of votes than his own centrist party. he says he is calling elections, they will take place, the first round, in three weeks' time. he is taking a massive gamble. last night, president macron said to be french is to write history, not to be governed by it. but it could well be that we find out in less than a month was not the time he has made an historic, monumental error. having said that, it could be that he is taking the best possible course of action in the circumstance in which he finds himself. in that the far right have surged in france, and maybe he is thinking that the elections for this place, the european parliament, don't necessarily translate into votes in the french national election, and maybe there is the will and the capacity to build a coalition to keep out of the far right in france, evenif keep out of the far right in france, even if they topped the polls. certainly the far—right party in france has won the last three european elections, in terms of the vote in france. that is not new. i think the extent to which they trounced president macron�*s party yesterday was new. they will certainly be hoping they are on the crest of a wave here and can consolidate this success in the national elections. certainly marine le pen has tried to change the image of this party, to detoxify it, as some may say. it was herfather who, for many people, was seen as the unacceptable face of france, even though they were picking up votes, some 20 or 30 years ago, there was always an alliance against them. but in the past couple of years they have used very savvy marketing and other sort of pr tools at their disposal. they have been big on tik—tok, they have a 28—year—old leader now, leading the party, and they seem to be picking up the youth vote, which has been an interesting dynamic. ratherthan vote, which has been an interesting dynamic. rather than talking about the stability of europe and geopolitical matters like emanuel mccraw has, it is clear he is somebody who likes that role that he takes on the global stage, the national rally have been talking about making life better for national rally have been talking about making life betterfor younger people, the cost of living crisis, as they call it, and all of that sort of stuff, trying to paint this positive vision of france. a few things to say about the situation in france, first of all, where he to lose that election, it is not unprecedented for a prime ministerfrom an is not unprecedented for a prime minister from an alternative party to be ruling the country alongside the president. you can think back to lioneljospin and the socialists who was in the party whenjacques chirac was in the party whenjacques chirac was president. there are a lot of people across the country in france who do support the national rally, including the young people. but national elections are very different to european elections. if you were running to be a deputy of the national assembly in france, you need 50% of the vote in the first round. what tends to happen in different reasons to live around the country is that the mainstream starts to build an alliance for the second round. so national elections are very different to european elections. the other thing to say is that president macron might have already considered that he was going to lose a vote of confidence that might have been called by the republicans, the right—wing party in france anyway in the summer. maybe his hand had been forced by these european elections. we are still two years away from the presidency. if he loses, maybe he hopes the national rally does not perform well in government, which gives perhaps his protege, the current prime minister, a shot at the presidency in 2020. but marine le pen's focus is the presidency that she has coveted for many years, even though she has lost in the second round to emmanuel macron. in brussels we are still waiting for an updated projection. votes are still being counted. let's talk about the future across europe, across france there was already a strong showing, not just for the hard right, but also the centre—right and the main centre—right grouping here, the ep ep, the european peoples party. that is ursula von der leyen�*s grouping. they strengthened their position as the largest party in brussels. the centre—right and christian democrats saw major wins in spain, poland and greece. they also made significant gains in hungary. winning 30% of the vote in hungary, the far right gave victor aubin his worst result in 20 years. the centre—left social democrats alliance held as the second—largest party in spain, but there were setbacks with losses for pedro sanchez�*s ruling party. germany, one of the big stories of the night, 0laf scholz, his spd party was relegated to third after the md, party was relegated to third after the afd, performing well in eastern states in germany, head of regional elections in september. let's look at what this picture translates into. a pretty bad night for liberals, the new grouping, but especially so the greens, outside the election party room, there were tears, particularly when the results came in from the german vote. you can see from the hemi cycle that the centre, broadly speaking, is holding. nicola schmidt came out onto stage and said we are prepared to compromise with the centre—right, as long as ursula von der leyen, she doesn't go too far to the right. if she was to reach out or giorgia meloni of italy to win a second term, she may well lose the left. why did the centre—right and the right—wing do so well last night? you have probably all seen the protests across the continent, many farmers taking to the streets over some green regulation costs they are adhering. that was something i put last night to the president of the european parliament. this parler doesn't work with a government and opposition, it works with majorities. we can see that a constructive, pro—european centre has held and it is that centre that will be projected to build on the european project that we need to work with. it begs the question, where does the european parliament go on climate regulation? climate policy had become a wedge issue for the right right across europe. do they step back from some of the necessary changes they will need to make? they are under pressure from those parties on the right. the big question, because they are disparate groups, the parties on the right, it is whether they can coalesce around one idea, and ukraine, for instance, they are quite diverse in their views. marine le pen's party is closer to russia than giorgia meloni's party, who is a full backer of ukraine and is sending arms to ukraine. it remains to be seen what kind of coalitions are formed on the right of european parliament. let's go back to the snap election in french. congratulations to you, your pre—election polls seem to be pretty spot what is the reaction? it is hu . e, spot what is the reaction? it is huge. the _ spot what is the reaction? it is huge. the huge _ spot what is the reaction? it 3 huge, the huge wave, a navy blue wave. the message is very clear, the message of the french people is that they want to have the return of law and order to the streets, to the borders, in government schools, in the treasury. and instead of working on these topics, emmanuel macron, who still has three years of president, and just new prime minister, he could have worked on these topics. instead of working on these topics. instead of working on these topics, asked by the french people, he decided to overturn the table. i think it is a very risky gamble. in my view, quite unnecessary.— gamble. in my view, quite unnecessary. gamble. in my view, quite unnecessa . ., ,�* ., ., unnecessary. he doesn't have a ma'ori unnecessary. he doesn't have a majority in _ unnecessary. he doesn't have a majority in the _ unnecessary. he doesn't have a majority in the assembly, - unnecessary. he doesn't have a majority in the assembly, could unnecessary. he doesn't have a i majority in the assembly, could he have perhaps lost a vote of confidence in the summer anyway? i know the republicans were itching for a vote. i know the republicans were itching for a vote. ., �* ~ ., know the republicans were itching foravote. ~ ., , , for a vote. i don't know, because the constitution _ for a vote. i don't know, because the constitution that _ for a vote. i don't know, because the constitution that charles - for a vote. i don't know, because the constitution that charles de l the constitution that charles de gaulle left to france, even if macron has a majority, but not an absolute majority in the assembly, he can still govern with a kind of trick which is known in france as the 49-3, that trick which is known in france as the 49—3, that article of the constitution. he can govern. it was unlikely that the front national would vote with the left. so it could have worked. but he was may be personally humiliated by this result, which is really bad, because his party has less than half of marine le pen's parties, which is really a humiliation, because he started on monday saying he will fight the far right. actually he is going to give power to the far right. but there is even something riskier, which is no majority at all of the assembly. so france would become very difficult to govern. it's a very strange decision, especially one month before the olympics in paris. you know, emmanuel macron was not at all forced to call a snap election, he could have said we had elections two years ago, but it's a gamble. very few people in france understand emmanuel macron�*s move, and what kind of game he wants to get. goad kind of game he wants to get. good to talk to you. _ kind of game he wants to get. good to talk to you, thank _ kind of game he wants to get. good to talk to you, thank you _ kind of game he wants to get. good to talk to you, thank you for coming on this morning. it is going to be a fascinating few weeks in france, through the selection campaign. as i say, we have had incidents before where prime ministers from an opposite party have run a french cabinet, presidents like to blame prime ministers for things that go wrong in france. the president of the national assembly is a canny political operator, and some people say he is more impressive than marine le pen. maybe he is trumping at this opportunity. certainly he will be leading the campaign for the national rally in the next few weeks. just a reminder that on our web page there are updates, continual updates here from brussels and also from paris. do take a look at that in the usual place. from here in brussels, i will hand you back to the studio. the main political parties are launching their manifestos, and key pledges for the lib dems include £9 billion to rescue the health service and social care in england, with the right to see the gp in seven days. funding would come from increased taxes on banks, energy and water firms. we will bring you the manifesto launch live at around noon. labourwill manifesto launch live at around noon. labour will announce its manifesto later in the week. today, they have said they will create more than 3000 new nurseries in primary schools in england. and the conservatives are promising to recruit an extra 8000 neighbourhood police officers over the next three years will stop let's start with the manifesto launch from the liberal democrats. the lib dems have been floating ideas to reform the health service for some time, now ed davey says he is putting a rescue package for the nhs at the heart of the manifesto. he says the nhs is in crisis in england. he is proposing a multi billion pounds cash injection over the next four years. he says this would give everyone the right to see a gp within seven days, all within 2a hours if urgent. it would guarantee access to an nhs dentist for everyone needing urgent or emergency care, and improve early access to mental health services. sarah davey has also been banging the drum for social care, with a junior partner in the health system. it will include a commitment to free social care for those that need it. with the conservative and labour party promising more resources for the health service, the lib dems have to be distinctive. like the other two parties, they say they will not need to put up income tax to fund health care, but other taxes are available. we to fund health care, but other taxes are available-— are available. we have identified areas where _ are available. we have identified areas where there _ are available. we have identified areas where there is _ are available. we have identified areas where there is money - areas where there is money available, which has been spent, we believe, in the wrong way. for example, the massive tax cut for banks. £4 billion is available if we reverse that. the banks. £4 billion is available if we reverse that-— reverse that. the lib dems claim the will reverse that. the lib dems claim they will be _ reverse that. the lib dems claim they will be more _ reverse that. the lib dems claim they will be more transparent - reverse that. the lib dems claim they will be more transparent on | reverse that. the lib dems claim . they will be more transparent on tax and spending than other parties, and today they will be setting out the political direction of travel. the lib dems, a pretty big day for them. pledges on health and social care in the manifesto. talk us through what we are going to expect. it's a big week for manifestos, actually. we've had to much weeks of campaigning, but in fact we haven't seen the detail of what any of the labour, lib dems and conservatives are offering. we are going to see more about this week. expect lots of numbers, thousands more of this, billions more on that. today is the day for the lib dems, and they are putting health at the centre of that. we will probably hear details are many other things like policing, that kind thing, later on. but the trail head is a lot of emphasis on health. now, the party leader, sir ed davey, has a good personal story to tell. he has talked about caring for his son, who is disabled, for his mother, when she was very ill with cancer. he has managed to speak with cancer. he has managed to speak with a great deal of passion about this. their pledge is to put more money, notjust into health, but also into social care in england. another 9 billion per year. sounds expensive. the lib dems used to say another penny on income tax to pay for health. they abandon that now. theyjoined the other parties by saying they are not going to put up income tax or vat. 0r national insurance, indeed. instead of doing that, instead of putting more pressure on hard—pressed families, they say that people like the big banks can cough up, that they have had tax breaks in the last few years, and what they reckon they can get another 4 billion a year from the big banks. also from oil and gas companies, water companies, closing tax loopholes, that is always a popular one. tax loopholes, that is always a pepuiar one-— tax loopholes, that is always a popular one. that is reflective of the main parties _ popular one. that is reflective of the main parties and _ popular one. that is reflective of the main parties and how- popular one. that is reflective of the main parties and how they . popular one. that is reflective of i the main parties and how they say they're going to get the money. experts say unless there is rapid economic growth, it's hard to make pledges add up in terms of where we find the money, unless we see a cut in spending, according to economists, or raising personal taxes? ~ , ~ taxes? absolutely. whether the arties taxes? absolutely. whether the parties can _ taxes? absolutely. whether the parties can really _ taxes? absolutely. whether the parties can really do _ taxes? absolutely. whether the parties can really do that - taxes? absolutely. whether the parties can really do that magic| parties can really do that magic money tree business and actually find some money, some of the pledges are a bit more than money down the back of the sofa. they say in their manifestos it will be fully costed. where the problem comes is a great deal depends on economic growth. that has been very elusive over the last decade at least. and whether that can really boost the good things they are promising the voters, that they h