Can Macron lead French awakening?

Emmanuel Macron’s win against Marine Len Pen in the French presidential elections was never in doubt, but it’s the margin of victory that makes it the stuff of political dreams. A one-year old party crushing a far-right movement, an upstart making short work of a veteran politician, who has also served as Member of the European Parliament. This was a triumph of dynamism over populism, hope over despair and new over the old order. Despite this, Marine Le Pen still had the support of 11 million voters. Her brand of populism won’t just go away or vanish with this defeat. It’s true that the numbers were overwhelmingly in Macron’s favour. His party, En Marche!, is the new darling of the masses for its progressive agenda, but Le Pen and her Front National party know that they have arrived and entrenched to make a difference in the long term. For better or for worse, it is too early to predict. In fact, her party doubled its numbers since the last time it came this close to the presidency twenty years ago when her father Jean Len Pen lost to Jacques Chirac. She can afford to party all night, like she did after the election results were announced. For Macron, it’s time for serious legislative business.

He has established his connect with the people. He will soon rub shoulders with the elite, the very establishment he despised and turned against to start his own party last year after a forgettable stint as a minister in the Francois Hollande government. The reality of governance awaits Macron. He has to seek out political parties and bag those numbers in parliamentary elections next month. It’s called realpolitik, which could test the wave of popularity he is currently riding. Will the crowd favourite continue to shun populism and stick to his principles? The French have turned away from Le Pen’s policies but they have shown no signs of turning away from the politicians who have made the country a Republic. They have learnt lessons from Donald Trump’s shock victory and Brexit. The people have shown they have a mind of their own by choosing Macron, a charming Centrist, a non aligned wannabe, who didn’t want any truck with the Left or Right. This puts him in no-man’s land, without an ideology to call his own. Now, that’s a safety hatch if he fails to deliver on his vaunted promises.