In much the same way as Macron, President Cyril Ramaphosa must realise that whoever he decides to invite to join the ANC in a governing coalition will have to endure two years of dissent from one or another part of the ANC.

European parliamentary elections are strange things. In many respects, they function more as an indicator of national sentiment across the 27 member states of the European Union, rather than an aggregator of widespread attitudes towards the bloc.

Given the complex and diffuse nature of power and decision-making within the EU, it is unclear exactly how many voters in the second greatest exercise of democracy on the planet - only behind the Indian general elections, which happened to be held the same week - even knew exactly what they were voting for. After all, voters were not allowed to cast a ballot directly for whoever would be the next president of the EU Commission, or even their direct member of the European Parliament, who are chosen according to complicated party list systems.

The national element of this supranational election was proven resoundingly by France's President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday night when he stunned his country, and indeed the rest of Europe, by announcing snap elections after his centrist alliance was emphatically beaten by Marine Le Pen's far-right Rassemblement National (RN) in the European polls.

Le Pen managed to get 31% of the vote against Macron's 14%.

"For me, who always considers...