Hollande holds cabinet crisis meeting after election debacle

FrenchFrench President François Hollande is holding an emergency meeting with top government ministers after the far right National Front emerged as France’s most popular party in voting for the European Parliament, reports The Washington Post.

Hollande’s Socialist Party finished a distant third in Sunday’s voting. He summoned a special meeting Monday morning to address the results, which Prime Minister Manuel Valls called an “earthquake.”

Valls pledged Monday to stick with tax and spending cuts that he argues will ease the pain for voters who rejected the governing party out of frustration with unemployment and economic difficulty.

The National Front led sweeping gains for far right and Euroskeptic parties in the European Parliament elections Sunday.

Read more of this AP report published in The Washington Post.