No time for Macron to celebrate
New leader must work to find support for proposed reforms to bolster French economy
EMMANUEL Macron was confronted yesterday with pressing reminders of the challenges facing him as France’s next president, even as allies and some former rivals signalled their willingness to work closely with him.
The centrist’s victory over far-rightist Marine Le Pen in Sunday’s election came as a huge relief to European Union allies, who had feared another populist upheaval to follow Britain’s vote to quit the EU and Donald Trump’s election as US president.
“He carries the hopes of millions of French people, and of many people in Germany and the whole of Europe,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Berlin.
“He ran a courageous proEuropean campaign, stands for openness to the world and is committed decisively to a social market economy,” she said, congratulating Macron on his spectacular election success.
But even while pledging to help France tackle unemployment, Merkel rejected suggestions that Germany should do more to support Europe’s economy by importing more from its partners to bring down its big trade surplus.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker put it bluntly: “With France, we have a particular problem.
“The French spend too much money and they spend too much in the wrong places. This will not work over time.”
The euro fell from sixmonth highs against the dollar on confirmation of Macron’s widely expected victory by a margin of 66% to 34%, as investors took profit on a roughly 3% gain for the currency since he won the first round two weeks ago.
France’s economic malaise, especially high unemployment, had undermined the popularity of outgoing Socialist President Francois Hollande so much that he did not even run as a candidate.
“This year, I wanted Emmanuel Macron to be here with me so that a torch could be passed on,” Hollande said, appearing with Macron at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Paris’ Arc de Triomphe to commemorate Victory in Europe Day and the surrender of Nazi forces on May 8 1945 at the end of World War 2.
Elsewhere in Paris hundreds of people, led by powerful trade union CGT, marched to protest Macron’s planned labour reforms.
On assuming office next Sunday as France’s youngest leader since Napoleon, Macron, 39, faces the immediate challenge of securing a majority in next month’s parliamentary election to have a realistic chance of implementing his plans for lower state spending, higher investment and reform of the tax, labour and pension systems.
With the two mainstream parties, the conservative Republicans and the left-wing Socialists, both failing to reach the presidential runoff, his chances of winning a majority to support his election pledges will depend on him widening his centrist base.
The Socialists are torn between the radical left of their defeated candidate Benoit Hamon and the more centrist, pro-business branch led by former premier Manuel Valls.
Yesterday, key members of the centrist arm of The Republicans appeared ready to work with Macron, despite the party hierarchy calling for unity to oppose the new president and labelling those who wavered traitors.
“I can work in a government majority,” Bruno Le Maire, a senior Republican party official and former aide to presidential candidate Francois Fillon, said.
“The situation is too serious for sectarianism and partisanship.”
Le Pen defiantly claimed the mantle of France’s main opposition in calling on “all patriots to join us” in constituting a new political force.
Her tally was almost double that made by her father JeanMarie, the last far-right candidate to make the presidential runoff, in 2002 when he lost to Jacques Chirac.
[Macron] ran a courageous pro-European campaign, [and] stands for openness