Macron pledges to heal French divisions
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French President Emmanuel Macron sought to unite a deeply divided nation yesterday after winning re-election in a battle against rival Marine Le Pen that saw the far right come its closest yet to taking power.
Centrist Macron won around 58.54 percent of the vote in the second-round run-off compared with 41.46 for Le Pen, according to final results from the interior ministry.
Macron is the first French president in two decades to win a second term and his victory prompted a sigh of relief throughout Europe that the far right had again been thwarted from taking power in the key EU state.
But his latest victory over his far-right rival was narrower than in 2017, when he won over 66 percent of the vote, and Le Pen’s result was the best ever for the far right.
The president already has a daunting in-tray, ranging from preparing for parliamentary elections as soon as June to implementing explosive pension reform plans and dealing with the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Addressing supporters in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, he vowed to heal rifts in a deeply divided country. “From now on, I am not the candidate of one camp, but everybody’s president,” he remarked.
“An answer must be found to the anger and disagreements that led many of our compatriots to vote for the extreme right.”
Turnout was the lowest in any presidential election second-round run-off since 1969 and, in another striking sign of disenchantment with politics, 8.6 percent of people who voted either delivered a blank ballot or spoilt their papers.
Macron, 44, now faces the challenge of parliamentary elections in June, where keeping a majority will be critical for his ambitions.
In a sign of roadblocks ahead, two polls published on Sunday showed most voters do not wish for him to also carry the parliamentary vote.
“Macron’s biggest challenge will be to create a sense of cohesion in an extremely fragmented country,” said Tara Varma, senior policy fellow and head of the European Council on Foreign Relations’ Paris office.
French daily Le Monde called Macron’s win “an evening of victory without a triumph,” while left-leaning Liberation called it “a victory without the glory.”
For Le Pen, her third defeat in a presidential poll was a bitter pill after years of effort at making herself electable. On Sunday Le Pen, 53, said she would “never abandon” the French and was already preparing for the June legislative elections.
Macron’s re-election sparked relief across Europe where many felt a Le Pen presidency would have left the continent rudderless following Brexit and the departure from politics of German chancellor Angela Merkel.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi called Macron’s victory “great news for all of Europe” while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that French voters “sent a strong vote of confidence in Europe today.”
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