Le Pen faces united opposition in runoff
Established parties swept aside as centrist candidate Macron leads first round of presidential vote
PARIS— Not since the Second World War has the anti-immigrant far right been closer to gaining power in France. With her second-place finish Sunday in the first round of the presidential election, Marine Le Pen has dragged her National Front party from the dark fringes of its first 40 years.
But that remarkable accomplishment is so alarming to so many in France that as soon as the preliminary results were announced at 8:01 p.m., virtually all of her major opponents in the 11-person race called for her defeat in the second-round runoff on May 7.
They implored their supporters to vote for the candidate who was projected to come out on top Sunday: the centrist, pro-European Union former economy minister Emmanuel Macron, a political novice and outsider.
The first-round showing by Macron and Le Pen represented an earthquake, as they effectively broke the French political establishment.
On the right and the left, the two parties that have governed France for more than 50 years suffered a severe defeat. They have been pushed aside in a wave of popular anger over the country’s stagnant economy and shaky security.
With 97 per cent of votes counted, the Interior Ministry said Macron had 23.9 per cent, giving him a slight cushion over Le Pen’s 21.5 per cent. Conservative candidate François Fillon, with just under 20 per cent, was slightly ahead of the far left’s Jean-Luc Mélenchon, with 19.6 per cent.
The euro jumped 2 per cent to more than $1.09 (U.S.) after the initial results.
Macron has vowed to reinforce France’s commitments to the EU and euro — and opinion polls give him a big lead heading into the second round.
With Le Pen wanting France to leave the EU and Macron wanting even closer co-operation among the bloc’s 28 nations, Sunday’s outcome means the May 7 runoff will have undertones of a referendum on France’s EU membership.
The rapid-fire endorsements of 39year-old Macron, coming from across the political spectrum, represented a dynamic that has always prevailed in France when the National Front approaches executive power — the cross-party, anti-far right alliance the French call the “Republican Front.”
“Extremism can only bring unhappiness and division to France,” Fillon said. “As such, there is no other choice than to vote against the extreme right.”
Le Pen has oriented her appeal around what analysts and politicians call the “un-demonization” of her party — the shedding of its racist, anti-Semitic, Nazi-nostalgic roots. That strategy has scored big results. Until the last week of the campaign, when she turned even more sharply anti-immigrant, her speeches were shaped around what she depicted as regaining France’s “sovereignty,” breaking with the EU and “restoring” France’s frontiers.
But an undercurrent of prejudice still undergirds the National Front’s fervent rallies. Anti-Muslim code still permeates her speeches. And a majority of French people, in polls, still say the party represents a threat to the country’s democracy.
Le Pen, in a chest-thumping speech to cheering supporters, declared that she embodies “the great alternative” for French voters. She portrayed her duel with Macron as a battle between “patriots” and “wild deregulation” — warning of job losses overseas, mass immigration straining resources at home and “the free circulation of terrorists.”
“The time has come to free the French people,” she said at her election day headquarters in the northern French town of Hénin-Beaumont, adding that nothing short of “the survival of France” will be at stake in the presidential runoff.
France is now steaming into unchartered territory, because whoever wins on May 7 cannot count on the backing of France’s political mainstream parties. Even under a constitution that concentrates power in the president’s hands, both Macron and Le Pen will need legislators in parliament to pass laws and implement much of their programs.
France’s legislative election in June now takes on a vital importance, with huge questions about whether Le Pen and even the more moderate Macron will be able to rally sufficient lawmakers to their causes.
In Paris, protesters angry at Le Pen’s advance — some from anarchist and anti-fascist groups — scuffled with police. Officers fired tear gas to disperse the rowdy crowd. Two people were injured and police detained three people as demonstrators burned cars, danced around bonfires and dodged riot police. At a peaceful protest by around 300 people at the Place de la Republique some sang “No Marine and no Macron!” and “Now burn your voting cards.”
Macron supporters at his electionday headquarters went wild as polling agency projections showed the ex-finance minister making the runoff, cheering, singing “La Marseillaise” anthem, waving French trico- lour and European flags and shouting “Macron, president!”
Mathilde Jullien, 23, said she is convinced Macron will beat Le Pen.
“He represents France’s future, a future within Europe,” she said. “He will win because he is able to unite people from the right and the left against the threat of the National Front and he proposes real solutions for France’s economy.”