Update (4:20pm ET):

Following a historic loss to Marine Le Pen's right-wing party in European elections on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he is dissolving the French parliament.

Macron said France will hold new elections on June 30 and July 7, a high-stakes maneuver that the WSJ said "stunned" the nation after projections based on early ballot counts came in for Sunday's elections for the European Parliament. The projections showed National Rally garnering around 31% of the vote, twice the support for Macron's Renew Party.

"This is a serious, weighty decision, but above all it's an act of trust," Macron said. "Confidence in you, confidence in the ability of the French people to make the right choice for themselves and for future generations."

National Rally leader Jordan Bardella said Sunday's results marked an "unprecedented rout for the powers that be," adding that it was "day-one of the post-Macron era."

Macron's decision to call parliamentary elections opens the door for his party, which is deeply unpopular at the moment, to shed even more seats to rival parties in France's National Assembly, the country's lower house of Parliament.

If that occurs, Macron could be forced to appoint a prime minister from another party, such as the center-right Les Républicains, in a power-sharing arrangement known in France as a "cohabitation."

"A dissolution means a cohabitation," said Alain Duhamel, a prominent political analyst.