On Sunday, French voters expressed both frustration with the current situation and good sense. They elected centrist Emmanuel Macron as president by a two-to-one margin over Marine Le Pen of the extreme right-wing National Front.
Their frustration was shown in that the final two candidates were not from France’s two traditional parties, the Republicans and the Socialists. Some 11 percent of voters cast blank or deliberately spoiled ballots. Turnout among the 47 million eligible voters was lower than in some previous elections.
The choice of Macron, at 39 the youngest president in modern French history, stood in contrast to America’s choice in November between 69-year-old and 70-year-old candidates. It is hard to gauge what impact the British vote last June to leave the European Union and America’s presidential vote in November had on the choices of French voters, an independent lot. Barack Obama endorsed Macron. Some of America’s right wing supported Le Pen as did President Vladimir Putin’s Russians.
The anti-EU, anti-immigrant trend in Europe lost steam with the Dutch defeat of extremist Geert Wilders in March and now Le Pen’s loss in France, suggesting that German Chancellor Angela Merkel will have less of a hard time winning her fourth term in September. The forecast was strengthened by recent victories of her party in two German state elections, in Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein.
Macron will not face an easy time as president. The giant challenge he will face will come in June, when French voters will elect a new parliament, with 577 seats. His party, En Marche, formed last year after he left the government, holds no seats. He does have the pedigree of a traditional French leader, having graduated from France’s elite National School of Administration, and brings experience as an investment banker and economics minister. He will need all that and more to tackle France’s formidable problems, including 10 percent unemployment, immigration tensions and the terrorist threat.
It is difficult to say how he will get along with President Donald Trump, given the generation gap and Trump’s tacit support for Le Pen. They have agreed to meet at the NATO leaders’ meeting in Brussels on May 25, followed by the Group of Seven summit in Sicily in the following days.
In his acceptance speech, Macron acknowledged the fierce divide in France. “I will fight with all my power against the divisions that undermine us, and which are tearing us apart,” he said. Whether by default or disgust with the alternative, French voters’ choice of Macron Sunday is the best for France, for Europe and for the United States.
