Pro-EU Macron wins France’s presidency, Le Pen hopes dashed
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 proEuropean former investment banker and dashing the populist dream of farright rival Marine Le Pen.
Macron, who had never run for office before, celebrated with thousands of jubilant, flag-waving 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!”
Marine Le Pen, his farright opponent in the runoff, quickly called the 39-year-old Macron to concede after voters rejected her “Frenchfirst” nationalism by a large margin. Le Pen’s performance punctured her hopes that the populist wave which swept Donald Trump into the White House and led Britain to vote to leave the EU would also carry her to France’s presidential Elysee Palace.
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, 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, Macron had 64 percent support. Le Pen had 36 percent — about double what Jean-Marie Le Pen, her father and co-founder of their National Front party, achieved at the same stage in the 2002 presidential election.
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 far-right 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 divorce proceedings with Britain.