Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BIG MAC... WITH EASE
France elects youngest president as Le Pen crashes
FRANCE is celebrating a political revolution today having elected its youngest ever President.
Centre-left Emmanuel Macron, 39, won an estimated 65% of the vote and far-right rival Marine Le Pen, conceded defeat yesterday evening. Thousands of his supporters gathered outside Paris’ Louvre Gallery to mark Mr Macron’s landslide win in one of France’s most remarkable elections. The two main political parties were not in the fight and pro-eu Mr Macron, who has never held elected office, headed En Marche, a movement he created only a year ago. Mr Macron was congratulated by PM Theresa May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. He said: “I am delighted the French people have decisively rejected Le Pen’s politics of hate.” But Mr Macron, a former investment banker, is fiercely pro-europe and will not grant the UK any special favours in the split from Brussels. He is also well-placed to lure City financiers across the Channel. He told supporters: “The European Union remains the best guarantee of peace on the continent. To want to weaken Europe is to let France face the threats of the present world alone.” Mr Macron faces an uphill battle uniting France where millions of voters snubbed the final run-off vote, unemployment is high and racial tensions are a real issue. France is still reeling from the terrorist attacks in Paris and Nice, which killed more than 200 people. Both candidates were mobbed by supporters as they voted. Mr Macron was all smiles as he cast his ballot in the Channel town of Le Touquet alongside his wife and former school teacher, Brigitte, 64. Topless feminist activists protested on a church roof in Henin-beaumont, northern France, before Front Nationale’s Ms Le Pen, 48 – who was calling for the removal of thousands of Muslims and sealing national borders – arrived to vote.
EUROPE and the wider world, as well as France, can feel relieved after Emmanuel Macron beat fascist Marine Le Pen.
Like Donald Trump, Macron has a 24-year marriage age gap. But unlike his US counterpart, he is the younger partner and should be around long after the ghastly tycoon is history.