The French entrusted this Sunday a new five-year term to Emmanuel Macron once morest Marine Le Pen, who despite losing achieved the best result of the right in a presidential election.
According to initial estimates, the 44-year-old candidate of La República en Marcha (LREM) obtained between 57.6% and 58.2% of the votes in the ballot, a smaller difference than in 2017 when he defeated his rival of the National Association (RN) with 66.1% of votes.
France opted for continuity with a pro-European leader, who also became the first to achieve re-election since 2002 when the conservative Jacques Chirac defeated the father of his rival this Sunday, the right-wing Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Macron’s victory distances the rupture project of the 53-year-old RN candidate, who advocated excluding foreigners from social aid by inscribing the “national priority” in the Constitution and abandoning the NATO integrated command.
For its part, the right has made steady progress in every election since 2002 and with between 41.8% and 42.4% of the vote, according to estimates, Le Pen achieved her best result.
Cheers of joy broke out on the Champ de Mars at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, where Macron is scheduled to address supporters, as the first estimates were made public.
But “when we see an extreme right above 40%, we will have to continue working, unite the country, have a political project and a parliamentary majority,” said the Minister of European Affairs, Clément Beaune.
Between 27.8% and 29.8% of French people did not turn out to vote, an unprecedented level of abstention since 1969 (31.3%).
“Responsible vote”
Macron’s re-election took place once morest a backdrop of discontent among young people and among disillusioned voters of leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who won almost 22% in the first round.
“Between plague and cholera, we must make the right decision,” said Pierre Charollais, a 67-year-old retiree in Rennes (west), advocating a “responsible vote” in a “particular” context due to the war in Ukraine and the French presidency of the EU.
In addition, his flagship proposal to delay the retirement age from 62 to 65 years announces a new series of social protests, like those that shook his first term, especially that of the “yellow vests.”
Five years later, France is not the same country: social protests marked the first half of Macron’s term, a global pandemic confined the population and the Russian offensive in Ukraine shook the European continent with force.
The war at the gates of the European Union (EU) flew over the campaign, although the main concern of the French was their purchasing power, in a context of rising energy and food prices.
Beyond choosing between two models of society, the voters had in their hands to select what place in the world they wanted for this economic and nuclear power until 2027, a decision that would have constituted an earthquake with Le Pen.
“Regardless of the winner, the country will be more difficult to govern in the next five years,” political scientist Chloé Morin told AFP. One of the keys will be in the legislative elections that will be held on June 12 and 19.
According to a BVA poll on Friday, 66% want Macron to lose his parliamentary majority. The last “cohabitation” dates back to the period from 1997 to 2002, when Chirac appointed the socialist Lionel Josp as prime minister.in.
