I owe you, Macron promises France
President admits voters backed him only in order to keep Marine Le Pen from power
EMMANUEL MACRON said he owed his re-election last night to reluctant voters who backed him to keep Marine Le Pen out of power after he defeated his rival in a polarising contest.
Standing in front of the Eiffel Tower after arriving to strains of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy – the European Union anthem – Mr Macron promised to do his “duty” to unite the country.
“Many of our compatriots voted for me not out of support for my ideas but to block those of the extreme Right,” he told a crowd of thousands waving French and EU flags.
Close to tears, he said: “I am everyone’s president,” before telling those who abstained or voted for Ms Le Pen that he understood their anger. “I know how much I owe to you. Thank you.”
But, in the event, he was projected to win with more than 58 per cent of the vote to Ms Le Pen’s 42 per cent, becoming the first French president in 20 years to be elected for a second straight term and the first in modern history to do so outside of a power-sharing administration. The run-off was a repeat – albeit far tighter – of the clash between the pair in 2017 when Mr Macron won 66 percent of the vote. Marine Le Pen’s party has never come so close to power.
Despite his victory, Mr Macron faces a battle to hold on to his majority in parliament against competing nationalist and Left-wing camps who secured a third of the vote each in round one.
The 44-year-old centrist had warned that France could be heading for a political earthquake on a par with Brexit.
The gap between the pair had widened in recent days in the wake of a no-holds barred TV debate last week that Mr Macron was seen as winning.
Turnout in yesterday’s second round was the lowest in 52 years, at around 28 per cent, as voters showed their displeasure with the choice of candidates by staying away in droves.
European leaders, meanwhile, breathed a collective sigh of relief at the defeat of the stridently Eurosceptic Ms Le Pen, who it was feared was plotting a Frexit referendum, despite her claim to want to reform rather than leave the EU.
Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said she “rejoiced” in being able to “continue our excellent co-operation”. She added: “Together we will move France and Europe forward.”
Charles Michel, the European Council president, said: “We can count on France for five more years.”
Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, who urged French voters to back Mr Macron, said voters “sent a strong commitment to Europe ... I am pleased we will continue our good co-operation”.
Congratulating the victor, Boris Johnson said “France is one of our closest and most important allies.”
Mr Macron’s conciliatory speech had echoes of Boris Johnson’s when he beat Jeremy Corbyn in the December 2019 Uk election. In that address, the Prime Minister thanked Labour supporters in Red Wall constituencies who had “lent him” their votes.
The result was greeted by a torrent of boos at Ms Le Pen’s election headquarters in the West of Paris. Ms Le Pen chose the chic pavilion in the Bois de Bologne, on Paris’s western outskirts, to issue a defiant message.
“Tonight’s result is in itself a remarkable victory [for us]. The ideas we represent have arrived at their peak in this second round,” she said, pointing to the highest score for the Right in French political history. “This result
‘The voters have spoken, Le Pen has been beaten. France refused to entrust its future to her’
constitutes the expression of a huge mistrust by the French people of both French and European leaders that they cannot ignore.
“Emmanuel Macron will do nothing to repair the fractures that divide our country and make our compatriots suffer.”
She made it clear she had no intention of stepping back from frontline politics, as she had previously suggested in case of defeat. “We are as determined as ever. I have no ill feeling nor rancour. More than ever I will pursue my commitment to France and the French people,” she said.
And she insisted that the “game is not altogether over” as her supporters could yet give Mr Macron a bloody nose in upcoming parliamentary elections.
A snap BVA poll published last night suggested that two-thirds of French citizens do not want Mr Macron to retain control in parliament. Far-left leader Jean-luc Melenchon, who scored a close third-place finish in the first round, had pointedly refused to urge his seven million-odd voters to back Mr Macron, while insisting they should not vote for Ms Le Pen. Speaking after the result, he said: “The voters have spoken, Le Pen has been beaten. France refused to entrust its future to her.”
But he insisted Mr Macron had nothing to shout about because his “election is the worst result of the Fifth Republic.
He, too, said: “The third round starts tonight,” calling on the French to help him secure a parliamentary majority and become prime minister.
Éric Zemmour, the hard-right firebrand, called for an “alliance between all of the Right” in parliamentary elections.
Marine Le Pen hailed her score in France’s presidential elections on yesterday as a “brilliant victory”, despite her projected defeat to Emmanuel Macron.
Promising to “carry on” her political career and vowing that she would “never abandon” the French, the hard-right leader said: “The result represents a brilliant victory.”
A torrent of booing erupted among her supporters at a chic pavilion on the western edge of Paris, as preliminary results showed that centrist Mr Macron had taken an estimated 58 per cent of the vote to her 42 per cent.
Ms Le Pen may have failed in her third bid for the French presidency, but her party is already looking ahead to the 2027 presidential election after a result that brought her closer than ever to power.
“To all those who wanted to see our party disappear, I would just like to say that I see a new form of hope,” she told a crowd of flag-waving party faithful, to chants of “Marine, Marine!” and strains of La Marseillaise.
Party activist Gilles Claud compared Ms Le Pen to a top athlete who had spent the last five years in intense training.
“Sometimes they make the podium and sometimes they don’t,” he said. “But we’ve never been so close. The manifesto has been refined, and the candidate too.”
In an interview with Le Figaro in February, Ms Le Pen said this election would “in theory” be her last run at the presidency. But even at the time, she stressed that this certainly wouldn’t mean retirement: she is, after all, only 53.
Despite last night’s defeat, even critics acknowledge that Ms Le Pen has succeeded in taking her party from the fringe to the mainstream, taken seriously as a candidate by French voters and the media alike.
It’s a far cry from 20 years ago when her father Jean-marie Le Pen first made it into the run-off against Jacques Chirac. That moment came as a national political shock – and in the end, the elder Le Pen only managed to win 18 per cent of the vote.
By 2017 his daughter had almost doubled her father’s score to 34 per cent, and this time she looks to have added around another eight points – far closer than Mr Macron would have liked.
“Whatever happened tonight, Macron is the real loser; he’s won by a very, very reduced margin. For him, that’s a failure,” said party official François Lenormand.
A lot can happen between now and the next presidential election in five years’ time, but a couple of factors already lean in Ms Le Pen’s favour.
Mr Macron will be out of the picture, as French presidents may only serve two consecutive terms. His centrist En Marche movement has swept away the mainstream parties of Left and Right – the Socialists and the Républicains – by poaching voters from both. Combined, they won just seven per cent of the vote in the first round of the presidential election on April 10.
Either of these traditional parties of government has a lot of rebuilding to do if they are to retake the presidency in 2027. And it is hard to imagine a successor to Mr Macron emerging from his En Marche! movement, which revolves around Mr Macron personally to such an extent that it intentionally shares his initials.
Last night’s results meanwhile show that Ms Le Pen’s years-long effort to
‘Whatever happened tonight, Macron is the real loser; he’s won by a very, very reduced margin. For him, that’s a failure’
transform her party’s image – from a haven for jackbooted thugs under her father, to a credible nationalist party of government under her own leadership – are paying dividends.
Jean-yves Camus, an expert on European nationalist movements at the Fondation Jean-jaurès, said Ms Le Pen’s 2022 campaign had been light years away from her 2017 performance, when she stumbled badly in a televised debate against Mr Macron.
She moved beyond her usual talking points of immigration and Islam to present herself as the candidate who best understood how the cost of living crisis is affecting ordinary French voters. And she successfully fought off competition from a new rival on the Right, Éric Zemmour, who crashed out in the first round of the election on April 10 on seven percent of the vote.
“It’s not such a negative record,” said Mr Camus, suggesting that many in Ms Le Pen’s National Rally would want her to stay on.
It is hard, in any case, to think of a plausible figure who could lead the party to success in her place.
Ms Le Pen’s 32-year-old niece Marion Maréchal is sometimes mooted as a possible heiress – and it would be in keeping for a party that has been dominated by the Le Pen family dynasty for its entire existence.
Ms Maréchal, however, has had a very public falling out with her aunt, and supported her Right-wing rival Éric Zemmour for the presidency – even taking on a role as his party’s vice-president.
Whoever leads the National Rally into the future, Mr Camus predicted that Ms Le Pen’s party would continue to wield significant influence as an opposition party – even if the French political system makes it difficult for it to win more than a handful of seats in parliament, let alone the presidency.
And, he added, Ms Le Pen has cemented her position in the French political scene as the candidate of working-class voters who feel forgotten – many of whom previously voted for the Left. “I don’t see how the traditional parties could win them back,” Mr Camus said.