Europe celebrates as Macron sweeps to victory in election

May ‘looks forward to working with French President’

THERESA MAY was among the first to congratulate Emmanuel Macron after he won the French election last night.

The 39-year-old will become the youngest ever French president after winning 65 per cent of the votes, exit polls showed.

Mrs May was quick to congratulate Mr Macron on his victory.

A Downing Street spokesman said: “The Prime Minister warmly congratulates President-elect Macron on his election success.

“France is one of our closest allies and we look forward to working with the new President on a wide range of shared priorities.”

French polling agencies showed the centrist candidate had triumphed over the farright’s Marine Le Pen, who had hoped to capitalise on the disillusionment of voters in France.

She called Mr Macron to congratulate him on his victory just minutes after the polls came in.

French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the vote was a rejection of the “deadly project of the extreme right”.

Crowds outside the Louvre in Paris, where a party was being held for Mr Macron, waved flags as news of his victory came in.

A former investment banker, Mr Macron became economy minister in 2014 but resigned two years later to set up his own movement, En Marche!.

He will take France’s top job without having previously been elected to public office.

European Council president Donald Tusk said on Twitter: “Congratulations to French people for choosing liberty, equality and fraternity over tyranny of fake news.”

But former Ukip leader Nigel Farage, who backed Ms Le Pen’s bid for the Elysee Palace, said: “Macron offers five more years of failure, more power to the EU and a continuation of open borders.

“If Marine sticks in there, she can win in 2022.”

Mr Macron was an investment banker for Rothschild & Cie before being made France’s Economy Minister in 2014.

He resigned in 2016 to set up his own movement, En

Marche! or Let’s Go!, which later turned into a presidential bid.

Now the independent, centrist candidate will take France’s highest political office, giving him power over national security, foreign policy and the ability to choose the Prime Minister.

Key to Mr Macron’s success is the army of volunteers, known by the English term “helpers”, who give up their time to campaign for him.

Volunteer Esteban Fabiao said: “As the National Front is reaching record-high intended votes, I thought now was an even more critical time to do something to fight against their ideas.”

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “Vive La France. Congratulations to new President, Emmanuel Macron on his decisive victory over the hard right.”

European Jewish Congress president Moshe Kantor said: “This was a vote for France, for the European Union and for democratic values.

“Never has a major European country faced such a challenge to its most basic value system of tolerance and democracy since all of Western Europe was dominated by fascism in the Second World War. We applaud the French people for facing this challenge with the full force of French democracy and the core values of the republic.”

THE YOUNGEST ever elected president in France’s history, the rise to power of the youthful and still unproven Emmanuel Macron, 39, represents a fresh start for a deeply divided country.

Though he did serve as economics minister for two years, Mr Macron only launched his fledgling En Marche! movement – Let’s move! – 12 months ago and Parliamentary elections next month will determine the extent to which he will be able to deliver his vision. It’s like Theresa May winning the keys to 10 Downing Street without any MPs behind her.

Furthermore, his wellintended attempt to cut payroll taxes, relax Sunday trading laws and allow employers to negotiate directly with workers, rather than the trade unions, in order to kickstart France’s faltering economy ended with inglorious failure after his predecessor, the weak and ineffectual Francois Hollande, capitulated.

In many respects, French voters had no choice after candidates from the traditional republican and socialist movements failed to make the run-off between Mr Macron, the son of two Amiens doctors, and Marine Le Pen from the far-right Front National. Decency prevailed over division. Even the conservative Le Figaro newspaper, whose political sympathies are not aligned to the victor, concluded that a Macron presidency was preferable to the Élysée Palace being occupied by a “aggressive, sniggering and offensive” candidate.

Thankfully, an apparent attempt by Russian computer hackers to influence the outcome did not come to pass – actions that could have far-reaching diplomatic consequences after the Kremlin sought to manipulate last November’s US presidential election.

Yet, while the next phase of Anglo-Franco relations will inevitably be shaped by Brexit, close co-operation on security matters will be paramount. As established communities have become fractured and polarised by a combination of globalisation and mass migration, neither Britain, nor France, have been immune from international terrorism. And while the UK has, mercifully, been spared atrocities on the scale of the mass loss of life suffered on the other side of the English Channel in the past two years, the best defence of all is far more cordial relations between Downing Street and the Élysée Palace.