Macron wins France election
Centrist is youngest to lead the nation
PARIS — Ripping up France’s political map, French voters elected independent centrist Emmanuel Macron as the country’s youngest president Sunday, delivering a resounding victory to the unabashedly pro-European former investment banker and dashing the populist dream of far-right rival Marine Le Pen.
Mr. Macron, who had never run for office before, celebrated with thousands of jubilant, flagwaving supporters outside the Louvre Museum in Paris on Sunday night.
The European anthem “Ode to Joy” played as he strode out to address the swelling crowd.
“France has won!” he said.
“Everyone said it was impossible. But they do not know France!”
Ms. Le Pen, his opponent in the runoff, quickly called the 39-year-old Mr. Macron to concede after voters rejected her “French-first” nationalism by a large margin. Ms. Le Pen’s performance punctured her hopes that the populist wave that swept Donald Trump into the White House and led Britain to vote to leave the European Union would also carry her to France’s presidential Elysee Palace.
Mr. Macron told the Louvre 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.
Earlier, in a solemn televised victory speech, Mr. Macron vowed to heal the social divisions exposed by France’s acrimonious election campaign.
“I know the divisions in our nation that led some to extreme votes. I respect them,” he declared, unsmiling. “I know the anger, the anxiety, the doubts that a large number of you also expressed. It is my responsibility to hear them.”
The result wasn’t close: With about 90 percent of votes counted, Mr. Macron had 64 percent support. Ms. Le Pen had 36 percent — about double what JeanMarie Le Pen, her father and co-founder of their National Front party, achieved at the same stage in the 2002 presidential election.
Mr. Macron’s victory strengthens France’s place as a central pillar of the European Union, and marked the third time in six months — following elections in Austria and the Netherlands — that European voters shot down farright populists who wanted to restore borders across Europe. The election of a French president who champions European unity could also strengthen the EU’s hand in its complex divorce proceedings with Britain.
Parisians lined the streets outside Mr. Macron’s campaign headquarters to see his motorcade whisk him away to the Louvre party. His wife, Brigitte, joined him on stage after his address.
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 anti-Semitism and racism.
After the most closely watched and unpredictable French presidential campaign in recent memory, many voters rejected the runoff choices altogether — casting blank or spoiled ballots in record numbers Sunday. Police sprayed tear gas and detained dozens of protesters holding running demonstrations through eastern Paris after the election results came out.
Congratulatory messages poured in from abroad. Mr. Trump tweeted congratulations on what he called Mr. Macron’s “big win” and said he looked forward to working with the new French leader. Mr. Macron has said he wants continued intelligence-sharing with the United States and cooperation at the United Nations and hopes to persuade Mr. Trump not to pull the U.S. out of a global accord fighting climate change.
Germany’s foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel, laced his welcome for Mr. Macron with a warning to the French, saying: “If he fails, in five years Mrs. Le Pen will be president and the European project will go to the dogs.”
Mr. Macron becomes not only France’s youngestever president but also one of its most unlikely. Until now, modern France had been governed either by the Socialists or the conservatives, but both of their candidates were eliminated before the runoff.
“France has sent an incredible message to itself, to Europe and the world,” said Macron ally Francois Bayrou, tipped among his possible choices for prime minister.
Unknown to voters before his turbulent 2014-16 tenure as France’s pro-business economy minister, Mr. Macron took a giant gamble by quitting Socialist President Francois Hollande’s government to run as an independent.
Despite her loss, Ms. Le Pen’s advancement to the presidential runoff for the first time marked a breakthrough for the 48-year-old and underscored a growing acceptance of her anti-immigration, France-first nationalism.
She immediately turned her focus to France’s upcoming legislative election in June, where Mr. Macron will need a working majority to govern effectively.