 The BBC's James Kumarasamy. They were called unexpectedly three years ahead of schedule by Emmanuel Macron after his centrist party was badly beaten by Marine Le Pen's far-right national rally in last month's European elections. That result was repeated in the first of the two-round contest last Sunday and there'll be hundreds of run-offs that will decide whether the national rally, a party long considered beyond the pale here, can win enough seats to actually form a government.