Macron retains the Élysée
The French president sees off a far-right challenge. Matthew Partridge reports
To the relief of mainstream politicians and European leaders, French president Emmanuel Macron won a “resounding” victory against Marine Le Pen in the presidential run-off, says The Times. Macron won with 58.5% of the vote, becoming “the first modern French head of state to win successive terms of office while also in control of the government”. By contrast, Le Pen’s vote on her third run for the presidency was lower than expected given her close second place in the first round on 10 April, though it was eight points higher than in the run-off against Macron in 2017.
A dangerously divided nation
Faced with the prospect of a far-right takeover of the Élysée, France’s “republican front” may have “done its job once more”, says The Guardian. Still, the election suggests that France remains “dangerously divided” along economic and generational fault lines, with a majority of bluecollar workers voting for Le Pen. At the same time, many “younger, well educated but economically precarious voters”, who supported the radical left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, simply didn’t vote – the abstention rate was “the highest for a presidential run-off since 1969”. If he is to win such voters back, Macron “will need to adopt a radically different playbook from the one that characterised his first five years in the Élysée”.
Indeed, while Le Pen “has expanded the appeal of her movement a long way”, it’s possible that the next election may see the biggest challenge come from the far left not the far right, says Freddy Gray in The Spectator. Mélenchon “far outperformed” expectations two weeks ago by nearly reaching the second round ahead of Le Pen. Indeed, he not only got almost 22% of the vote, but also came top among 18- to 24-year-olds. Already he is claiming that he can force Macron into an “uneasy alliance” by winning more seats in next month’s election for the National Assembly.
Unfinished business
The “sobering realities” of the election, and the sense that many people believe that “the liberal order no longer has the answers”, seemed to prompt a “rare attempt at humility” from Macron, says Sherelle Jacobs in The Telegraph. In his victory speech he made the promise that “he will be a president for everyone”. However, given his “hauteur” and the fact that he epitomises the worldview that many voters dislike, it’s doubtful he is capable of such a political shift. Indeed, that Macron’s first post-election call was to the German leader suggests that he will double down on further European integration.
The fact that Macron is constitutionally barred from running again in 2027 gives him the “freedom” to pursue the “unfinished business” of his more controversial reforms, says The Economist. These include raising the retirement age from 62 to 65 to help France’s “rickety” finances, as well as performance-related pay for teachers and further cuts in red tape. Still, if he cares about his legacy he must also find ways to tackle inequality by improving prospects in the “crime-ridden banlieues”, the “grimy post-industrial north” and the “beautiful but economically stunted south”, otherwise he risks being remembered as “le président des riches”.