High stakes in French vote for US, EU
French voters go to the polls Sunday, April 24, in a high-stakes presidential election that will likely reverberate through not just France and Europe but also in the United States. Incumbent President Emmanuel Macron faces far-right challenger Marine Le Pen.
Le Pen’s vision for France is a far more conservative one than Macron’s: No more Muslim headscarves in public. All schoolchildren in uniforms. Laws proposed and passed by referendum. Generous social services unavailable to foreigners unless they’ve held a job for five years. In all things, France would come first.
Macron, 44, a centrist, is seen as the front-runner, but a Le Pen win is possible – an outcome that could rock France’s system of governance, strike fear among its immigrants, jolt the dynamics of the 27-nation European Union and unnerve NATO allies.
Le Pen, 53, says she would retool the country’s political system and the French Constitution to accommodate her populist agenda.
The United States has long considered France its oldest ally, but a Le Pen presidency could pose a problem for the Biden administration by undermining unity over Russia sanctions and bolstering autocratic populists in Europe.