Placeholder when loading item promotions
PARIS — Emmanuel Macron has become the first French president in two decades to win a second term by fending off a far-right challenge from Marine Le Pen that could have turned Europe upside down.
Macron won 59 percent of the vote and Le Pen 41 percent in extrapolated results released by France’s public broadcaster.
Macron’s victory offers France continuity and another five years of political stability for the 27-nation European Union, which has been plagued for years by right-wing populists, Brexit, an immigration crisis and now Russia’s war in Ukraine. France and Germany are the pillars of the bloc, and policymakers in capitals across the continent have followed the elections with concern.
The EU anthem, Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” was playing as Macron arrived for his victory speech in front of the Eiffel Tower, where people were waving French and EU flags. He described the election as a victory for “an ambitious humanist project” for France and Europe. But he also made gestures towards Le Pen’s supporters.
“I know that the anger and disagreements that caused many of our compatriots to choose the extreme right and vote for this project also need to be addressed,” he said. “That will be my responsibility.”
Macron vs. Le Pen 2022: What you should know about the runoff in the French presidential election
Despite Le Pen’s apparent defeat, Sunday’s result was the far-right’s best result in a French presidential election and 7 percentage points higher than Le Pen’s result in 2017.
The release of the forecast results was met with a mixture of boos and solemn silence at the Paris Pavilion where she was holding her election night event. But Le Pen remained defiant. She condemned “two weeks of unfair, brutal and violent methods” to prevent her victory and said that “tonight’s result is in itself an overwhelming victory”.
A victory by 53-year-old Le Pen would have placed an anti-immigrant populist who has expressed his admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin at the helm of the European Union’s second-largest economy and its only nuclear power plant. It would also have replaced an ardent EU defender with a harsh critic of the bloc.
Europe fears a possible Le Pen presidency in France as a threat from within
Some European leaders feared that a Le Pen presidency could have led to the dissolution of Western institutions. Especially as Ukraine rages on at a war that has united European leaders to an unusual degree, a Le Pen victory would have sent a shockwave through NATO and jeopardized the flow of French arms that has quietly flowed to Kyiv.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was one of the first leaders to congratulate him. write on twitter: “Together we will advance France and Europe.”
The result reaffirms Macron’s role as Europe’s de facto leader after German Chancellor Angela Merkel retires and her successor is engulfed in the turmoil surrounding the war in Ukraine. Macron will have another five years to put his stamp on the European Union, which he has been trying to turn in a French direction by extending the tough budget rules imposed when Germany had the tighter grip.
“He’s a very strong figure in Brussels now,” said Guntram Wolff, the head of Bruegel, a Brussels-based political think tank.
But in France, a key question for Macron, 44, will be whether most of the people who voted for him on Sunday support his program or whether they voted for him just to prevent Le Pen from winning. Should the latter be the case, the incumbent could still face a trying second term – marked by opposition in the streets and in Parliament – that could further polarize the country and strengthen the fringes of French politics.
After the result became clear on Sunday evening, Clashes broke out between demonstrators and police officers near the Place de la Republique in Paris and in the French city of Rennes.
“The question is, will he hear the sense of uneasiness that exists in the French electorate? … Will he be able to change?” said Vincent Martigny, a political scientist at the University of Nice.
In his victory speech, Macron addressed those who voted for him despite their disagreements with his presidency. Her “voice will bind me for years to come,” he said.
But whether he can address the mounting frustrations with him may not depend solely on Macron. As France pushes the limits of these rules on government debt and spending, Macron could also be forced to impose Brussels-driven austerity policies on its people in the years to come, moves that will be unpopular with vulnerable voters who are already skeptical of him Rule. It remains to be seen whether his re-election will calm the far-right currents shaking the continent or just give the bloc a temporary respite.
France is due to hold general elections in June, which could show some of the frustrations fully. Left-wing candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon on Sunday called these parliamentary elections – which usually attracts little attention in France – the “third round” of the presidential election, pointing to a bitter campaign in the coming weeks.
In her speech, Le Pen also called on her supporters to support her party in June. “The game isn’t quite over yet,” she said.
“Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon are positioning themselves as leaders of the opposition,” said political scientist Antoine Jardin.
The result was more crucial than the final poll averages, which suggested Macron would win by a margin of 10 to 12 percentage points. The difference can be explained in part by late voters. Macron’s polling lead had increased in the days leading up to the runoff, and France’s ban on releasing new polls after midnight on Friday would have prevented that increase from being fully captured.
Uncertainty prevailed during the vote on Sunday. France is known for being particularly unforgiving towards its incumbents. And enthusiasm for Macron is nowhere near the level it was when he first ran for office in 2017, when he launched his own centrist political movement and became France’s youngest president.
Sunday’s voter turnout was forecast at 72 percent, according to the French public broadcaster, which would be the lowest in the second round of a presidential election in half a century.
He has disappointed some of his supporters by pushing through tax cuts for the wealthy, being less ambitious on climate change than some had hoped, and tackling immigration head on – in a way designed to appeal to Le Pen voters, but also Le Pen’s messages echoed anti-migration leaders in Hungary and elsewhere.
Le Pen, on the other hand, has had some success in toning down her image and bringing her party into the mainstream. Her focus on bread-and-butter issues also resonated with voters.
How Marine Le Pen moderated her image and approached the French Presidency
Before the first ballot, Macron barely campaigned, instead concentrating on the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. It’s not uncommon for French incumbents to avoid campaigning, but his decision, while criss-crossing the country, allowed Le Pen to claim that she was more attuned to French voters’ economic concerns – the number one issue in past weeks .
Still, Sunday’s result suggested Le Pen failed to convince the French that she is the best candidate to tackle these issues.
“I want to leave [Macron] has one term left to continue what he has created,” said Jean-Philippe Dahene, 56, a Macron voter in the far-right stronghold of Hénin-Beaumont, citing the series of crises that disrupted Macron’s presidency, including the Coronavirus Pandemic and the War in Ukraine.
But some fear Macron’s win will only temporarily ease France’s growing polarization.
Almost 60 percent of voters cast their ballots for far-right or far-left candidates in the first ballot.
“Macron should try to listen to all these people who are in trouble,” said Nathalie Meslin, 58, a lawyer who voted for Macron in Paris on Sunday, although she said she disagreed with all of his proposals. “Over the next 5 years that anger is likely to grow and unfortunately we risk extremes taking over.”
When Macron faced Le Pen five years ago, he beat her by a margin of more than 30 percentage points. But that the gap has narrowed to single digits at certain points in this campaign cycle suggests that Le Pen has managed to normalize her party and moderate her image.
Support for the far right was unthinkable for many in France at the time Le Pen took over the party from her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was known for his xenophobia and described the Nazi gas chambers only as a “detail” of World War II .
Le Pen renamed the party from Front National to National Rally in 2018. She downplayed her family connections, with campaign posters calling her “Marine” or just “M.”
But even as Le Pen moderated her image, she continued to cling to many of her most radical proposals. In this campaign, she advocated for a referendum to end immigration to France, for women to be fined for wearing headscarves in public, and for a policy that put them first in France with the laws and values of the European Union would bring into conflict.
Le Pen met considerable opposition to her campaign, both from her rivals in French politics and from abroad. Ahead of the election, the leaders of Germany, Spain and Portugal had penned an extraordinary joint op-ed urging French voters to vote for Macron and, as they said, “democracy”.
Even though Le Pen has risen sharply compared to five years ago, the French have finally chosen a man who has wrapped himself in the blue and gold flag of the European Union.
Birnbaum reported from Riga, Latvia and Petit from Hénin-Beaumont, France. Lenny Bronner in New York and Scott Clement in Washington contributed to this report.