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caitriona: i'm caitriona perry in washington and this is bbc "world news america." france's person he calls a snap parliamentary election after the far right european vote. far right parties made gains in germany and italy, but europe's centrist party holds its majority in the parliament. the when security -- the un security council backs the gaza peace process in the middle east. hello and welcome to "world news america." i'm caitriona perry. we begin with europe's parliamentary elections. support for far right paddies -- parties surged most notably in france where president macron

called a surprise domestic parliamentary election after rare the far right national rally party swept the european vote. the party secured more than double the votes of mr. macron's centrist alliance. political rivals said that he was threatening security. >> it is the results of the impoverishment of the french and the downgrading of our country. today i cannot act as if nothing happened. i decided to put back in your hands are parliamentary future by the vote. caitriona: president macron's party currently has 169 lower house makers and the french parliament out of -- a most double the other seats. if he loses the majority the upcoming alledge and still preside over defense and foreign policy but would lose the power

to set domestic agenda policy and security. the eu election result is one to celebrate for the far right. >> the french have spoken and this historic election shows with the people vote, the people win. given more than 32% to the national rally, the french have given us the highest score. all parties combined in 40 years. it is a real emotion to see this beautiful, popular force rising up through the country. caitriona: our european correspondent sent this report from france. reporter: 40 miles outside paris, this is the land of cheesemaking, were support for mccrone has crumbled. the members of the monday club said they fear the right. then we met a 30-year-old mom of three, a worker in an elderly

care home who says she is desperate for something new. >> what frightens people could actually do them good. we should try the national front because france is getting worse. i'm scared to leave my house and public transport is not safe. reporter: whatever the results of the snap parliamentary elections, emmanuel macron will stay on as president another three years. a national rally victory could have a huge impact here and in many parts of france. it would also be hugely symbolic because in just six weeks time the country will host the lipid games. by then france could have its first far right government since the second world war. this is the 28-year-old who could be france's promised her in a month. from social media, he has been winning young supporters in particular, focusing on the cost-of-living, softening they

much of a party once condemned as unelectable and working alongside others. she hopes to replace mccrone as president -- she hopes to replace middle mccrone as president. they translate their victory to the national vote. caitriona: in germany, social were pushed into third place by the far right alternative for germany paris unlike president mccrone, the chancellor has rejected calls for early votes pa. our correspondent gave this analysis of jordan maloney victory. reporter: it entrenches her dominance and strength, very much emboldened after the win. the center left it as well, not a runaway victory for georgia alone. she was all most 29% of the

pole. she has managed to really chart a course between the different sides of the right wing. she is a leader who started off with her political roots in neo-fascism. she formed a party much more seen as far right and is hard right on some social issues come immigration and lgbt rights, but since being elected to office in 2022 she has managed to build a strong relationship of the president of the european commission who now knows she may depend on georgia maloney for a second term as leader of the european commission. she also has strong relations with leaders in paris, brussels, london, and washington paris and she has been in strong support of ukraine after the invasion by russia. she is very pro-nato. that is how she has differ injured herself from other far right leaders in other parts of the continent. caitriona: centrist mainstream

parties held onto the overall majority in the european parliament as the far right to not see the same success across all eu member states. left wing and green party's across the nordic countries gained ground while far right parties saw support diminished. other countries are bucking the trend towards the right. reporter: in poland the centrist coalition led by the promised her won the elections. and there were big gains for the center-right in hungary, spain, and greece, which means overall the center-right, in dark blue, strengthened their majority in the european parliament. music to the ears of the european commission president. >> the center is holding. but it is also true that the extremes on the left and on the

right have gained support. and this is why the result comes with great responsibility for the parties in the center. reporter: how much clout the far right will wield will depend on their ability to overcome their differences and work together. for now results are still coming in, and those results will determine the direction of the eu for the next five years. caitriona: let's discuss all of this now. we are joined by the former ministry for european affairs for ireland and a nonresident senior fellow with the digital innovation initiative at the european foreign policy analysis. think you for joining us. how do you explain this urge to the right? is it a reaction to a largely left green agenda in europe in recent years or something more? >> i think that is a big part of

it certainly. we have seen in recent months farmer protests all over europe, notably in brussels, paris, berlin. that has been obviously instigated by people living in rural areas, the farmers, those concerned about the impact of the green agenda on other livelihoods. i think it is probably wider than that and it's a reaction i suppose to maybe the aftermath of the financial crisis, both on the left and right radical movements sort of taking off during that time. populism has become the rigor in modern democracies across the world. it is a combination of factors, and certainly the far right has done well, but i think it is important not to overreact and to note that the bloc of

centrist parties still retain the majority in the european parliament, a reasonably comfortable one. caitriona: french president macron's decision to call a snap election. you have contested plenty of elections in your time. i was wondering if you were surprised by his decision? >> no, i thought it was interesting and a smart decision. in a sense it is a gamble and it may not pay off, but i think the alternative is he would have effectively been a lame duck the remainder of his te theren would be constant speculation about his commandure. to get anything done from that point of view. obviously an emboldened party would be nipping at his heels the entire time.

i think this is like ripping off a band-aid, putting it up to the public. it is one thing to go to the european election, it is another voting for your national legislature. history tells us often when faced with the choice of voting extremist parties in positions of power, domestically the electric balks at that prospect and that is what he is betting on. it is not necessarily an unwise move. i know many have deemed it to be that, but i think it is actually probably the best option for him at this point in time to really test the popularity of her party and see if he can call their bluff essentially. caitriona: looking into the future and what it will mean for the direction of the parliament once everyone has filled their seats and the new commission is in place, we heard that the center will hold, that the extremes on the left and right,

their influence will essentially cancel each other out. what direction do you see the parliament going? >> there has already been an indication of a move to the right. europe has lost competitiveness. europe needs to innovate. i think that is apparent to everybody, particularly in the center-right group. the epp, there has been a lot of dissatisfaction the last few years, a feeling her commission was lurching too much to the left, too much on the green agenda, not enough focused on the single markers on competitiveness, driving innovation and growth and securing europe's economy for the future. i think we will see a bit of realignment. we will see less of a focus i think on regulation and heavy legislation and more on implementation and ensuring your can really compete -- ensuring

that europe can really compete on a global stage. obviously the election of parties to the right of her own center-right group will spur that along. but the center is holding. it has slightly contracted. i think it is important to say that the center-right has grown these elections, getting seats. it is the social democrats, the liberals, macron's group and the greens in particular have had a really bad election in europe. i think that is a clear message. i think there will be agreement in terms of a coalition governing european parliament. there will be agreement ultimately on the next president of the european commission. it probably will be urszula votto line, but that is not guaranteed to peer a casualty of this process. obviously with the french elections it will be a bit delayed now. the hope was by the end of june the next president of the

european commission would be agreed by the european heads of state of government. with the french elections that is likely pushed back to the middle or end of july. there will be a lot of horse trading between the political parties and no guarantee that she will ultimately be the figurehead of the next commission, but i think it will clearly be led by moderate centrist forces. caitriona: plenty to watch for in politics. thank you very much for joining us on bbc news. the u.s. is making a major diplomatic push for a cease-fire in gaza. antony blinken is visiting the middle east for the eighth time since the october 7 attacks. he is fiercely advocating a cease-fire deal as proposed by president biden. secretary blinken met the egyptian president before heading to israel for talks with the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. the statement hartman -- state

department said that secretary blake and assured netanyahu the policies would ashore calm on the northern border and maintain peace in the region. before departing for journalism, secretary blake and said hamas was to blame for holding up the proposal. >> it is hamas. that is who everyone is waiting on. that is who the palestinians in gaza are waiting on, who the israelis are waiting on, who the hostages and hostage families are waiting on, it is the entire region and the entire world is waiting on. so we will see. does hamas want to end this conflict, and this war that it started? we'll find out. but it's clear virtually the entire world has come together in support of the proposal. the only open question is, will hamas say yes? caitriona: that plan announced by president biden 10 days ago begins with a six week cease-fire, where israeli forces

would withdraw from gaza and hamas would release all remaining hostages in gaza in exchange for palestinian prisoners. it also puts in place a plan to rebuild guys with international assistance. washington says that israel has approved the three phased plan, but promised her netanyahu's government has largely stuck to its position it only agrees to temporary pauses until it achieves its ultimate goal of defeating hamas. hamas says it will only guarantee a truce that guarantees the end of the war. we have this report. reporter: publicly we are seeing the americans trying to press arab leaders to put pressure on hamas to accept this. hamas is going to basically want a far clearer guarantee this will be the end of the war and a full israeli withdrawal from gaza. clearly they don't feel like they've got that yet. we have not seen a formal response or resumption of negotiations.

there is something. else beneath . what mr. blinken's trunk to do is bind israeli leadership into this. because although mr. netanyahu has said his war cabinet has authorized a deal, we have not heard calls for support from him. crucially, the fractious cabinet including far right ministries, some of those have outright objected to the proposal already and some have said it would precipitate a collapse if this proposal were to go ahead. that puts pressure on mr. netanyahu potentially to pull back from it all. the white house is trying to bounce -- balance the two sides to progress. that is why mr. blinken is here. there are strong reservations for israeli leadership, to some extent the upper echelons of hamas to play for more time here. among those, trying to rush this

through the white house, president biden desperately seeking an agreement before the u.s. presidential election campaign gets underway proper later this year. so far here from the region, few signs of any eminent breakthrough. caitriona: the united nations authored a cease-fire proposal put forward by prisoner biden. 50 members of the u.n. security council, 14 voted in favor -- of 15 members, 14 voted in favor, with only russia abstaining. let's get the latest from our correspondent, who is in new york. russia abstained, but the resolution passed. what is different about this one? reporter: yeah, look, the united states, i think it is no surprise this resolution vote coincided with antony blinken's

trip to the region. what we heard from the u.s. is this was the best possible way to secure a durable end to the war, saying it is a deal that was israel's initiative, outlined three phases that would eventually lead to the complete withdrawal of israeli forces, the release of all hostages in exchange for palestinian prisoners, major reconstruction of gaza eventually. but i think from different members, you have different positions. while the united states says this resolution passing needs the international community is united and this will help put pressure on hamas to accept the deal, algeria said they still had reservations about the text but supported it because they wanted to give diplomacy a chance, wanted to give a glimmer of hope to palestinians. but from russia and china, a lot

more skepticism. russia did not want to block the resolution because the arab group of nation supported it, but a questions whether israel accepted the deal as the resolution states. they pointed to a number of statements by israeli officials, including prime minister netanyahu, that they will continue the war until hamas is defeated. china as well questioned if parties will actually implement these three phases of president joe biden's proposed deal, china noting the other security council resolutions that have been passed were not implemented, including a permanent cease-fire, including getting more aide at scale into gaza, questioning whether this will have a tangible impact on the ground. so i think it remains to be seen if this resolution will in fact be different than the others. caitriona: thank you for that. now let's talk more, joined by

the abbasid and president of the middle east council and holder of many diplomatic positions within the u.s. state department. the un security council that was pals today welcoming this proposal, will this make a difference to efforts to put the plan in place in the region? >> thank you. you can look at it either way. positively it is just another brick in that wall of pressure both on israel and on hamas. even though it specifically called for hamas to accept it, it tacitly puts pressure on israel as well. number two, we got a hamas response after the resolution passed, saying again they look positively towards it. i would say overall it certainly has done no harm. it does add another brick of

pressure on both parties, and this is the u.s. strategy, to really box both sides in with the partners in the region, pointing out what each side will get from the resolution and what it will cost them if they don't abide by it, if they don't accept it. caitriona: getting from that point to the beginning of the first phase of the deal, the six week cease-fire, temporary cease-fire, how far is that gap between hamas and israel? they both seem to want different things from what is actually on the table. >> indeed, that is exactly right, and the entire world is held hostage by the prime minister wanting to remain in power and hamas leadership wanting to remain in power. for different reasons, doing what is best for their own people is likely to cost them that desire to remain in power. premised are netanyahu's cabinet

-- prime minister netanyahu's cabinet has shifted to the right and they have made clear they do not support this proposal even though it originated from israel. one ministry made skeptical comments. hamas leadership is looking for that permanent cease-fire, which palestinians need in the gaza strip. but also it means if they go forward that they are likely to lose their position for being able to lead palestinians in the gaza strip. that is the challenge. caitriona: does that mean there is no incentive for prime minister netanyahu to agree to this deal if he is at risk of losing power? we saw one person withdraw from the war cabinet over the weekend. >> no, he in fact has incentives to do so. if he goes to the right of him, if he accepts it, but the opposition leader has made clear

he will help shore up the government, so he has a safety net if he is courageous enough to make this move for the israeli people. it gets back hostages in a way thinking about not only the cost of palestinian lives, but since the war began the idf, only seven hostages have been returned safe to israel. three hostages have been killed by the idf. that balance is not a good one. most except -- effective way is through these diplomatic agreements to get these people home. it is an israeli priority. it will also shore up the relationship with the united states, which we also know is extremely tense as president biden is continuing to lose patience with the premised are, and it will go some way to lighten some of the pressures on

the international community that is deeply dissatisfied with how israel is conducting the war and perhaps takes pressure off the northern border. there is that connectivity as well. caitriona: unfortunately we are out of time. you have to leave it there for the moment. think you for joining us on bbc news. >> my pleasure. caitriona: new research suggests that african elephants call each other unique names. names are in the form of low rumbles that can be heard over long distances across the savanna. keep an ear out for those, and remember that you can find out more about the days news and plenty more besides on our website bbc.com/news. i'm caitriona perry. thank you for watching "world news america." do take care. announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by...

financial services firm, raymond james. cunard is a proud supporter of public television. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: get the free pbs app now and stream the best of pbs.

amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett on the "newshour" tonight -- the un security council for the first time approves cease-fire in gaza as the u.s. pushes toward a deal after a blood the weekend. amna: