France rejects ‘high priestess of fear’
The former investment banker’s first big test will come in parliamentary elections in June.
The French roundly rejected the isolationism and fear-mongering of populist French candidate Marine Le Pen in the presidential election, re-embracing the European Union, the continent’s decades-old experiment in economic union, stability and peace borne out of the ashes of World War II.
For an America that engaged in two costly wars in the past century spawned by a divided Europe, that’s good news.
Centrist former economy minister Emmanuel Macron appeared to be on his way to an easy victory over Le Pen after voters overwhelmingly endorsed his promise of economic reform and a renewed commitment to making France competitive in the global economy.
Le Pen, in contrast, had promised a Brexit-like referendum aimed at pulling France out of the EU and rejection of the euro. France was a founding member of the EU and, as the world’s sixth largest economy, its abandonment of the EU could have spelled doom.
The election was also the latest reckoning for an anti-immigrant fervour that has animated voters across Europe and America. In the final debate with Le Pen last week, Macron called her ‘‘the high priestess of fear’’.
Similar angst over globalisation and the influx of ‘‘outsiders’’ was the driving force behind Britain’s vote to leave the EU and President Trump’s surprise victory in November. But Sunday’s results – following the narrow defeat of the far right in Austria’s presidential election and a more resounding rejection of a right-wing populist in the Dutch elections – hold out hope that a populist insurgency has reached a high-water mark in Europe and is receding.
With victory in the presidential contest, Macron’s struggle has only just started. He now leads a nation burdened with 10% unemployment caused as much by a cumbersome social welfare system and overregulated labour markets as by cut-throat international competition. And while the messenger of French populism has suffered a defeat, the underlying concerns about globalisation and Muslim immigration remain.
French voters made history during the initial round of voting by rejecting for the first time France’s established political parties and have now done so a second time by coming together behind a 39-year-old independent centrist who has never held elected office.
The former investment banker’s first big test will come in parliamentary elections in June. Macron and his new party, En March, or Onward, faces the daunting task of beating out the established Socialist and Republican parties.
Without that, Macron risks a prime minister chosen from one of those two opposing parties – more than likely, the conservative Republicans – and a divided government, which could leave him hamstrung as president. He needs a mandate for his vision of overhauling the nation’s crushing labor code and creating jobs in a way that could alleviate French concerns about immigration.
Macron’s embrace of free trade and a common currency for Europe are what Americans need to hear. The EU, after all, is the United States’ largest trading partner. Macron also has a healthy skepticism of President Vladimir Putin, who was embraced by Le Pen, and there are rumours that the last-minute release of the Macron campaign documents was engineered by Russian hackers.
When Macron takes office next week, he will be modern France’s youngest president. He faces stiff challenges immediately, but offers a far brighter alternative to the dark world of divisiveness and fear propagated by his nowvanquished opponent.