European markets ease despite decisive Macron poll win
Youngest leader vows to heal divisions
PARIS: European stock markets edged down in early trading yesterday as investors had been widely expecting Emmanuel Macron’s victory in the French presidential election.
Though Mr Macron’s victory is considered positive for the region’s economy and the euro, stocks had risen strongly in the previous two weeks on expectations of his win.
As of press time, the CAC 40 index of leading French shares was down 1% at 5,375. Other indexes across Europe were also trading lower, while the euro, which briefly hit a six-month high above $1.10 overnight, was down 0.5% at $1.0942.
“With markets having rallied throughout last week i n expectation of a Macron win, there was little upside left for equities and the euro,” said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG.
The clear bias in favour of Mr Macron in the markets rests on a number of factors, above all related to his views on Europe. Mr Macron is a keen advocate of the EU and the euro currency, while rival Marine Le Pen proposed taking France out of both.
French President Francois Hollande said yesterday his successor will be sworn in on Sunday. The president said the transfer of power would take place just a week after Mr Macron’s election as the youngest president in modern France. Mr Macron won 66.1% of the vote, final results from the French interior ministry showed yesterday. He received a total of 20,753,797 votes, compared with Ms Le Pen’s 10,644,118.
PARIS: French President-elect Emmanuel Macron laid the groundwork yesterday for his transition to power, announcing a visit to Germany and a name change for his political movement and appearing with his predecessor at a solemn World War II commemoration.
Mr Macron handily defeated far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen in Sunday’s presidential runoff, and now must pull together a majority of lawmakers for his year-old political movement to run in the mid-June legislative election.
His party is changing its name to La Republique En Marche (Republic on the Move) as it prepares a list of candidates. Mr Macron has promised that half of those candidates will be new to elected politics, as he was before his victory on Sunday (yesterday, Thai time).
Mr Macron won the presidency with 66.1% of votes cast for a candidate. But a high number of blank or spoiled votes and unusually low turnout are signs of an electorate dissatisfied with its choices. Ms Le Pen says she will lead the opposition to Mr Macron.
Yesterday, a French national holiday, the president-elect joined President Francois Hollande in commemoration of the end of World War II. It was the first time the men had appeared in public together since Mr Macron resigned in August 2016 as Mr Hollande’s economy minister to run for president — a decision that was received coldly by the French leader at the time, according to French media.
Yesterday, though, Mr Hollande gripped Mr Macron’s arm before the two men walked side by side and then announced the transfer of power would take place on Sunday, a week after the election.
After his win, Mr Macron pledged to unite France’s rifts, saying that he’ll work to address the concerns that were exposed during one of the most divisive campaigns of recent history.
The president-elect made his comments in a speech to supporters at campaign headquarters in Paris less than an hour after Ms Le Pen conceded the election.
“I know that there is anger, worry and doubts that many of you have expressed,” said Mr Macron, 39, pledging to “fight with all my energy against the deepening divisions” in French society.
Mr Macron, who had never run for office before, later celebrated with thousands of jubilant, flag-waving supporters outside the Louvre Museum. The European anthem Ode to Joy played as he strode out to address the swelling crowd. His 64-year-old wife Brigitte joined him on stage with her children and grandchildren.
Mr Macron told the crowd that the Le Pen vote was one of “anger, disarray”. “I will do everything in the five years to come so there is no more reason to vote for the extremes,” he said.
Mr Macron said he understood that some voters backed him reluctantly, simply to keep out Ms Le Pen and her National Front party, which has a long history of antiSemitism and racism. “I know that this is not a blank cheque,” he said. “I know about our disagreements. I will respect them.”
After the election, police arrested 141
people in eastern Paris in clashes with masked protesters. Police said nine people remained in detention yesterday, primarily over vandalism charges.
Mr Macron’s commanding victory over the Ms Le Pen on a platform of freemarket policies strengthens the EU and deals a blow to the populist wave that has roiled western democracies for the past year. An independent centrist who has never before run for office, he is set to
become the youngest-ever elected French head of state.
“Macron is a new face and that’s exactly what France and Europe need: a fresh start,” said Andre Sapir, a senior scholar at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels. “Macron gives Europe huge hope.”
A pro-European globalist, Mr Macron’s challenge will be to end years of high unemployment and sluggish growth, deal with the terrorist threat that has traumatised the
country and, ultimately, restore faith in the political establishment.
Leaders were quick to hail Mr Macron’s achievement, with UK Prime Minister Theresa May among the first to offer her congratulations. Her office said they also discussed Brexit. German Chancellor Angela Merkel praised his pro-European campaign in a brief call. President Donald Trump took to Twitter to congratulate Mr Macron on his “big win”.
The outcome will help restore some of the EU’s self-confidence after it was battered by Britain’s decision to leave the bloc last year. A committed free-trader, Mr Macron will help act as a counterweight to the protectionist wing of Mr Trump’s White House, along with Ms Merkel, Canada’s Justin Trudeau and Xi Jinping of China.
The election result is at once a blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who met with Ms Le Pen at the Kremlin in March, and a rebuff to Mr Trump, who said in April Ms Le Pen was the “strongest” candidate on borders. Mr Putin yesterday urged Mr Macron to bridge deep rifts and work together to fight the “growing threat of terrorism and violent extremism”.
“This is of huge significance for French politics,” Bruno Cautres, a political scientist at the Sciences Po institute in Paris, said by phone. “The voters’ demand for political renewal has swept everything aside, politicians of the establishment have been eliminated one after the other, and the winner is someone who has never been elected before.”
Mr Macron will be sworn in as the head of mainland Europe’s second-largest economy and its leading military power, as well as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
Capturing the presidency is a remarkable achievement for Mr Macron, who built his movement in just the past year. He is the first postwar head of state to be elected from outside the traditional party structure.
Yet his victory also propels France into uncharted political territory. His lack of an established base may curtail his ability to fulfill campaign pledges to pursue closer ties to France’s European neighbours and launch far-reaching reform of the economy. Mr Macron has pledged to strengthen the euro, cut taxes on business and kick start competitiveness by allowing more company flexibility and by inviting top scientists to relocate to France.
His first major announcement will be his prime minister, who will lead a caretaker government until parliamentary elections in June. They will be crucial for a president whose movement has no experience contesting legislative elections.
While Mr Macron’s premier will get to select a cabinet right away, the newly elected parliament will have the power to bring it down and impose its own choice unless La Republique En Marche becomes the largest bloc. With at least five political formations contesting all 577 seats, a hung parliament could emerge.
“Macron’s biggest challenge now is to win the battle for parliament,” Dominique Reynie, politics professor at Sciences Po, said.
“If he doesn’t have a majority he’d have only limited power, he’d become a constitutional monarch. If he has his own majority, he’d have all the powers which the Fifth Republic grants the president.”