French President Francois Hollande – reeling off of this weekend’s embarrassing defeat in the European Parliament elections at the hands of a party once considered racist and extreme – went on TV to make an urgent appeal for reform of what he called the “remote” and “incomprehensible” European Union.

“This cannot continue.  Europe has to be simple, clear, to be effective where it is needed and to withdraw from where it is not necessary,” President Hollande said in a televised address to the nation.  Hollande added the EU must scale back its role in the lives of its citizens. 

This comes after Hollande’s Socialists were humiliated with a record low of just 14 percent of the vote.  The National Front topped the poll with 25 percent, just one of the anti-EU parties made sweeping gains across the continent.  The three big pro-EU centrist blocs are still on course for a majority.

Hollande lamented that overcoming the financial crisis of 2008 had come at a terrible price, what he admitted was “an austerity that has ended up disheartening the people,” and causing many Europeans to lose faith in the bloc.  When European Union leaders meet on Tuesday he would “reaffirm that the priority is growth, jobs and investment”, Hollande said.