Macron Calls Surprise French Election That’s Unlikely to Stir Crypto, Is Likely to Shake Up Government

• French President Emmanuel Macron dissolved parliament on Sunday, calling a snap election.

• Macron called the election after his rival Rassemblement National party secured a victory in the European Parliament election.

French President Emmanuel Macron dissolved parliament and called a snap election after his ruling Renaissance party secured only about half the seats of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in elections for the European Parliament.

The two rounds of voting are expected to take place on June 30 and July 7.

The election is unlikely to undo the country’s advances in the crypto industry. It registered 74 crypto companies last year, a number that was expected to jump to 100, and French regulators recently worked to attract more digital asset companies. The U.K., whose government has said it wants the country to be a crypto hub, has only 44 registered crypto companies.

Macron, first elected as president in 2017, called the election after National Rally, formally known as Rassemblement National, secured 31.4% of the seats on offer for French candidates. That trumped the performance of Besoin d’Europe, the EU representative for Renaissance. France is the second-biggest country in the EU by population and was allocated 81 seats out of 720. Germany, the largest, gets 96 seats.

Last year the EU, a trading bloc of 27 nations, passed a wide-ranging, first-of-its-kind package for crypto called the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) legislation. The rules allow crypto companies to operate across the EU if they secure a crypto asset service provider license in any member nation. The package is set to take effect for stablecoin issuers on June 30 and the rest of the legislation will be active by the end of the year.

“I have heard your message,” Macron said in a televised address, “and I will not let it go without a response.”

CoinDesk reached out to the Renaissance party for a comment on its crypto stance.