Russia’s Top MP: Scholz, Macron Should Stepdown

By Staff, Agencies

Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Olaf Scholz have suffered significant losses in the European Parliament election.

Volodin said Macron and Scholz should resign after losing in the European Parliament election.

On Monday, Volodin commented on the EU parliamentary vote results, noting significant gains by right-wing forces, shaking up traditional parties.

In France, right-wing National Rally led by Marine Le Pen secured 32% of the vote, surpassing Macron's Besoin d’Europe at 15%, prompting a snap parliamentary election by the French president.

Scholz's Social Democrats in Germany face their worst result in decades, with 14% of the vote, placing third behind the CDU/CSU [30%], while the right-wing Alternative for Germany [AfD] placed second with 15%.

At the same time, the center-right European People’s Party appears set to remain the largest political group in the EU parliament. As exit poll data continued to trickle in, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised to “build a bastion against the extremes of the left and the right.”

Summing up the projected results of the election, Volodin claimed that Macron and Scholz – whom he called a “disgrace to Europe” – have “lost big time”. He argued that the disappointing performance of Macron’s bloc was a sign of the “collapse” of the French president’s policies. Macron has effectively acknowledged this by dissolving the National Assembly, Volodin added.

Meanwhile, Scholz’s ruling coalition “has lost the support” of German voters, with the opposition already demanding a vote of no confidence in the government or snap elections, Volodin noted.

He also argued that the projected election results in France and Germany were “predictable,” claiming that they stem from economic stagnation, the migrant crisis, and EU states’ increasing involvement in the Ukraine conflict, which Volodin said is contrary to their national interests.