Macron’s win stalls march of far right
What happened
Emmanuel Macron defeated Marine Le Pen to win re-election to the French presidency this week, though by a smaller margin than the resounding 66 percent he received in his 2017 face-off with the far-right leader. Nearly 59 percent of French voters chose the 44-year-old centrist in the runoff election after he squeaked ahead of 11 other candidates with 28 percent of the vote in April. Macron successfully painted Le Pen, the 53-year-old head of the antiimmigrant National Rally party, as an extremist stooge of Vladimir Putin, pointing to the $9.5 million loan she took from a Kremlin-connected bank in 2017 and her demands to withdraw French troops from NATO. Le Pen’s campaign zeroed in on soaring inflation and other pocketbook issues while maintaining support for policies such as banning Muslim headscarves and ending birthright citizenship.
President Biden congratulated Macron on his win, calling France the “oldest ally” of the U.S. and pledging “continued close cooperation” on issues such as Ukraine and climate change. The results eased fears in the West that increased migration, economic swings, and the coronavirus pandemic could propel far-right parties into leadership. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a Putin ally who recently won a fourth term in office, had hoped Le Pen would join him in a coalition of nationalist governments that would be a counterweight to the European Union. Le Pen had borrowed more than $11 million earlier this year from a Hungarian bank closely linked to Orban. But Le Pen’s 41.5 percent share of the vote in this election cemented her role as a major player in French politics. “In this defeat,” she said in her concession speech, “I can’t help but feel a form of hope.”
What the editorials said
Macron’s re-election victory means the free world “can breathe easier,” said The Wall Street Journal. Le Pen is “a longtime apologist for Putin” and undoubtedly would have hobbled NATO’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She also “ran to Macron’s left on economics,” supporting protectionism and a wealth tax, which seems to have pushed him leftward as well. He should revisit the free-market reforms he once proposed, but for now, “he deserves credit for saving the world from Le Pen.”