Holidaymakers get major Euro currency boost after plunge

France’s snap General Election is having a ripple effect throughout the continent as the Euro took a sharp downhill turn on Monday. The currency has dropped to a near two-year low against the pound as it tumbled half a Euro cent.

Currently, the Euro is sitting at €1.07 to the dollar and €1.18 against the Pound. The last time the currency dropped this low was mid-2022, with the invasion of Ukraine driving it’s dip below the dollar for the first time in 20 years.

The Euro is reflecting the political uncertainty after the European Parliament elections over the weekend saw nationalist groups making major gains and saw a devastating defeat for President Macron’s Renaissance party and Germany’s centre-left SPD party.

The National Rally party won 31.4 percent of the vote, more than double of President Marcon’s centrist alliance. The defeat prompted the President’s surprise announcement to dissolve parliament and call a snap election.

The first round of the French election is set on June 30. Marcon’s opposition, Marine Le Pen who previously lead the National Rally, has welcomed the decision confidently declaring her party is “ready to take power if the French give us their trust”.

However, Paris’ mayor Anne Higaldo branded the move “extremely unsettling” and is told France24 she was “stunned” at the timing with barely two weeks before the Olympic Games is set to start in the French capital.

As a result of the political chaos, French banks have slumped with shares in three major banks falling between 5.4 and 4.1 percent. The sudden and drastic drop has also seen the French CAC 40 index at its lowest point since February.

Despite the surprise results in France and the Euro’s plunge at the start of the week, market analysts at Deutsche Bank told The Guardian that national government stability in other major eurozone economies is “unlikely to be affected” by the EU Parliament results.