A mega-disco coronation for youngest leader since Napoleon can’t hide surge of France’s far right
This was, as they say in these parts, a fait accompli. Few conclusions, even in these strange political times, have been more foregone than last night’s victory of the fervently pro-European centre-Left Emmanuel Macron over the hard-Right nationalist Marine Le Pen.
For all that, there was a palpable sense of tension across France last night as voters waited to see the result of the strangest and nastiest presidential campaign in living memory: Macron 65.5 per cent, Le Pen 34.5 per cent.
The result was a relief for the markets, the mainstream political class and the European Union. it will not have gone unnoticed in Brussels that Mr Macron chose to arrive at last night’s victory rally in Paris to the booming strains of Ode to Joy, the European Anthem, rather than the Marseillaise.
But it was hardly an unalloyed triumph for the status quo. France’s old two-party system has been obliterated by this election. And Madame Le Pen, leader in all but name of an overtly xenophobic nationalist party had doubled the vote which her father, JeanMarie Le Pen, collected in 2002 and won a third of the French electorate.
The result was mirrored in the tone of last night’s two grand finales. While the Le Pen camp locked themselves away at a bootfaced invitation- only wake restricted to hand-picked media in the French suburbs, Mr Macron had booked one of the grandest royal palaces in Europe – the Palais du Louvre, no less.
This was a coronation, after all, a preplanned victory party – complete with rap artists, exotic masked dancers in gold cloaks and a pop festival- style set. in scale and style, it was even more hubristic than New Labour’s champagne-popping all-nighter at London’s Royal Festival hall in honour of Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide.
Feted by thousands of screaming supporters, the youngest French leader since Napoleon Bonaparte – he’s just 39 – strode theatrically through the broad precincts of the Louvre alone, tracked by a spotlight, to thank his country. And he had a message for the defeated supporters of Mme Le Pen.
‘i will do everything over the next five years to ensure that there is no reason to vote for extremists again,’ he proclaimed, while urging the crowd not to boo the very mention of her name. ‘The task that awaits us,’ he went on, ‘is immense and starts tomorrow.’
At the end, he was joined on stage by his wife Brigitte, 64, dressed in a sparkling dark blue ensemble, who blew kisses to the crowd. she was followed by her children and grandchildren – the extended family who, we are told, call the new president ‘Daddy’.
FRANCE’s first ladies, much more than the men, have been a colourful bunch lately. There was model-cumsinger carla Bruni, married to Nicolas sarkozy, followed by the rotating consorts of outgoing president Francois hollande.
Mme Macron, the new president’s former drama teacher and boyhood crush, is the most interesting yet. Unlike America, where the First Lady plays a formal part in the White house administration, France has no designated role for a presidential spouse.
Mr Macron, however, has said he intends to create a formal Elysee Palace position for the woman he calls ‘my best friend’ and who calls herself ‘president of his fan club’.
No sooner had the result of French TV’s extensive exit poll operation been announced at 8pm French time than the courtyard of the Louvre – with the famous glass pyramid at its centre – became a giant dance floor.
‘Macron is the man who is going to lead Europe in the future,’ said Francois Morin, 39, an entrepreneur, above the din. ‘Merkel is on the way out. he is the future for this country and for the EU.’ somewhat surprisingly, the song that brought the house down was Englishman in New York.
Mindful that something more statesmanlike than a mega-disco might be expected
for his first presidential pronouncement, Mr Macron appeared on TV from a studio shortly after the result to address the nation.
Looking solemn, pale, possibly even a tad shocked, he pledged he would serve with ‘respect’ for all, promising ‘ to renew the links between Europe and its citizens’. Then it was on to the victory rally in front of the true believers at the Louvre. Yet for all the euphoria and jubilant dance anthems, the really big shock had been the first round result, a fortnight back, when Mr Macron’s new En Marche (Switched On) political movement and Mme Le Pen’s angry nationalists formally killed off the grand old parties of Right and Left. Mr Macron has now gone on to pull off one of the greatest democratic coups in post-war politics.
Never previously elected to anything and with no party machine, he now finds himself a key player on the world stage with a seat on the UN Security Council and a pivotal place at the European Union’s high table. Brussels will certainly be delighted. Mr Macron had been the only candidate in this race promoting ever- closer European unity. His rallies had been the only ones at which European flags outnumbered French ones.
When it comes to negotiations over Brexit (which he regards as ‘a crime’), he stands alongside those who favour the big stick rather than the big carrot. Thirsty European Commission president JeanClaude Juncker will have been pouring jubilant trebles last night.
So what else does Mr Macron’s election mean for Britain? He and his wife are good English speakers who have recently voiced their fondness for London. His British friends include ex- chancellor George Osborne, whom Mr Macron came to know during his short-lived spell as French finance minister, and former EU commissioner and arch-Remainer, Lord Mandelson.
On the campaign trail, he made much of his roots in northern France and of growing up surrounded by those vast war cemeteries along the Western Front.
While no doubt mindful of what Britain sacrificed in two world wars, he is first and foremost a hard-headed ex-banker and graduate of the Ecole Nationale d’Administration. Sentiment is not on the syllabus at the prestigious and famously uncompromising academy which produces the top tier of France’s mandarin class.
LIKE other candidates, he has in the past said he wants to renegotiate the Touquet border treaty whereby British Border Control can operate on French soil and vice versa.
if border controls were indeed pushed back from Calais to Dover, the principal beneficiaries would be the gangs of people-smugglers.
But, for now, he has more pressing matters at hand, like forming a government while having no political party from which to draw it.
Theresa May was certainly keen to offer congratulations and ensure a mature, workmanlike relationship. But it is Germany and the EU to whom Mr Macron will turn first.
For all the triumphalist, gyrating ballyhoo in Paris last night to celebrate the toppling of the old political order, no one seriously expects any radical change to the French way of doing things. Mr Macron may be young and shiny and new but he is no Napoleon.
Meanwhile, the world’s gaze now shifts across the Channel from the French election to the British one.
Whoever wins on June 8, it is safe to say that neither Theresa May nor Jeremy Corbyn nor any other party leader will have booked rappers, masked dancers or a royal palace in which to celebrate.