French President Emmanuel Macron defeated his far-right rival Marine Le Pen on Sunday by a comfortable margin, securing a second term and averting what would have been a political earthquake.
Cheers of joy erupted as the results appeared on a giant screen in the Champ de Mars park at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, where Macron’s supporters waved French and EU flags. People hugged each other and chanted “Macron.”
In contrast, a gathering of dejected Le Pen supporters erupted in boos and catcalls at a sprawling reception hall on the outskirts of Paris.
Ms. Le Pen conceded defeat but vowed to keep fighting, with the June parliamentary elections in mind.
“I will never abandon the French,” he told supporters who chanted “Marina! Marine!”
Early projections by pollsters showed Macron getting around 57-58 percent of the vote.
Such estimates are normally accurate, but may be adjusted as official results come in from across the country overnight.
But Macron can expect little or no grace period after many, especially on the left, only reluctantly voted for him to prevent the far right from winning.
The protests that marred part of his first term could flare up again fairly quickly as he tries to push through pro-business reforms.
“We will not spoil the victory… but the National Rally (of Le Pen) has its highest score,” Health Minister Olivier Veran told BFM TV.
“There will be continuity in government policy because the president has been re-elected.
“But we have also heard the message of the French people,” he added, promising changes.
The first major challenge will be the parliamentary elections in June and opposition parties on the left and right will immediately start a big push to try to vote in a parliament and government opposed to Macron.
Philippe Lagrue, 63, the technical director of a theater in Paris, said earlier in the day that he voted for Macron after voting for leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon in the first round.
He said he would vote for Melenchon again in June. “Prime Minister Melenchon. That would be fun. Mr Macron would be upset, but that’s the point.”
Ifop, Elabe, OpinionWay and Ipsos pollsters projected a 57.6-58.2 percent victory for Macron.
The victory of the centrist and pro-European Macron Union was immediately hailed by his allies as a reprieve for mainstream politics that has been rocked in recent years by Britain’s exit from the European Union, the election of Donald Trump in 2016. and the rise of a new generation of nationalist leaders.
“Bravo Emmanuel,” European Council President Charles Michel wrote on Twitter.
“In this troubled period, we need a solid Europe and a France committed to a more sovereign and more strategic European Union,” he added.
Macron will be joining a small club: only two French presidents before him have managed to secure a second term.
But his margin of victory appears to be narrower than when he first beat Ms Le Pen in 2017, underlining just how many French remain unimpressed with him and his national record.
That disappointment was reflected in turnout figures, with France’s main polling institutes saying the abstention rate was likely to be around 28 percent, the highest since 1969.
Against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and ensuing Western sanctions that have exacerbated rising fuel prices, Le Pen’s campaign focused on the rising cost of living as Macron’s weak point.
He promised deep fuel tax cuts, zero percent sales tax on essentials from pasta to diapers, income exemptions for young workers and a “French first” stance on jobs and welfare.
Meanwhile, Le Pen said her past admiration for Russia’s Vladimir Putin showed she could not be trusted on the world stage and insisted she still harbored plans to take France out of the European Union, something she denies. In the last part of the campaign. Seeking support from left-wing voters, Macron downplayed an earlier promise to make the French work longer and said he was open to discussing plans to raise the retirement age from 62 to 65.
In the end, as viewer polls after last week’s contentious televised debate between the two testified, Ms Le Pen’s policies, which included a proposal to ban people from wearing Muslim headscarves in public, remained too extreme for many French.
Former mercantile banker Macron’s decision to run for president in 2017 and establish his own grassroots movement from scratch has put an end to old certainties about French politics, something that could affect him again in parliamentary elections in June.
(YAYA)