{"id":45699,"date":"2022-04-25T05:31:34","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T05:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/macron-reelected-but-le-pen-s-big-score-shows-france-increasingly-divided\/"},"modified":"2022-04-26T07:03:46","modified_gmt":"2022-04-26T07:03:46","slug":"macron-reelected-but-le-pen-s-big-score-shows-france-increasingly-divided","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/macron-reelected-but-le-pen-s-big-score-shows-france-increasingly-divided\/","title":{"rendered":"Macron re-elected French president"},"content":{"rendered":"

The centrist incumbent swept to victory by a comfortable margin, with some 58.5 percent of the electorate backing him versus 41.5 percent for Le Pen, according to a preliminary tally. That gives Macron a second five-year term.<\/p>\n

But the president\u2019s victory is clouded by the fact that his rival \u2014 an anti-immigration, nationalist candidate who advocates banning the Islamic headscarf in public, has courted Russian President Vladimir Putin and wants to turn the European Union into an \u201calliance of European nations\u201d \u2014 won more votes than any far-right candidate in the history of the French Republic.<\/p>\n

More than 12 million people chose Le Pen, about five million more than during her last presidential bid in 2017 \u2014 an increase that suggests that her strategy of trying to bring her party into the political mainstream has been largely successful.<\/p>\n

The result carries also warnings for the EU and NATO.<\/p>\n

In the midst of Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine, with footage of bombed-out cities featured daily on TV news, a huge chunk of the French electorate backed a candidate who has called for forming an alliance with Moscow and said she would pull France out of NATO\u2019s integrated command if elected.<\/p>\n

In one of the EU\u2019s founding countries, millions voted for a candidate whose campaign platform advocates dismantling the EU from within by suspending its free-travel rules and downgrading the supremacy of EU law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis result is [the sign] of a great mistrust against our leaders and against European leaders, a message they cannot ignore,\u201d Le Pen told supporters in her concession speech. \u201cVoters have shown they want a strong opposition power to Macron.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her strong showing will be seen as a warning in Brussels, which is still rattled by Britain\u2019s vote to leave the European Union and is locked in judicial battles with Poland and Hungary over rule-of-law disputes.<\/p>\n

But the most immediate challenge will be for Macron, who embarks on his second term in a deeply divided country where political anger could easily boil over into street protests and violence.<\/p>\n

The president acknowledged those divisions in his victory speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur country is full of doubts and divisions, so we will need to be strong. But nobody will be left by the wayside,\u201d he said from an octagon-shaped stage set in front of the Eiffel Tower.<\/p>\n

{{Unrest around the corner}}<\/p>\n

While the vote means continuity will prevail in France, it also shows that divisions that have plagued French politics for decades are not shrinking, but getting larger with every successive election.<\/p>\n

Le Pen is on her third presidential campaign but she has not ruled out another and is by no means finished politically. She has recovered from her defeat in 2017 and significantly expanded her party\u2019s base. In her concession speech, the National Rally party chief struck a combative tone and hinted that she would be leading her troops into battle when voters elect a new French parliament in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a striking victory,\u201d Le Pen told cheering supporters in Boulogne, a suburb of Paris that has historically been her party\u2019s home base.<\/p>\n

Hinting at potential alliances that could strengthen Le Pen\u2019s party even further, far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, who was knocked out in the election\u2019s first round, called for the formation of a \u201cpatriotic bloc\u201d uniting his and Le Pen\u2019s supporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must forget our quarrels and unite our forces. It is possible, it is essential, it is our duty. Let\u2019s build the first coalition of the right and the patriots as soon as possible,\u201d Zemmour said after the election results were announced.<\/p>\n

Macron crippled the mainstream center-left and center-right forces during his rise to power and Sunday\u2019s vote showed that the once-powerful Socialist and Les R\u00e9publicains parties are beyond saving. Neither party was able to gather more than five percent of votes in the first round, meaning that they will not be eligible to have their campaign expenses reimbursed by the state.<\/p>\n

Their collapse accelerates the reformatting of France\u2019s political landscape, away from a right-left divide, toward a split between nationalist anti-establishment populists and centrist pro-European progressives.<\/p>\n

Embarking on his second term fresh from two years of COVID policies, amid high inflation and the war in Ukraine, Macron is unlikely to enjoy any sort of honeymoon period. Calls have already gone up to kickstart what\u2019s known in France as a \u201csocial third round\u201d of the presidential election \u2014 one that takes place in the streets, in the form of protests. Left-wing voters who held their noses and voted for Macron to keep the far right out of power are particularly motivated to apply pressure to Macron\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a rocky ride,\u201d a top official at Macron\u2019s La R\u00e9publique en Marche party told POLITICO ahead of Sunday\u2019s vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019ll be a big wide-ranging protest movement, but I do think we see a range of protests in different parts of the country, some like the Yellow Jacket [grassroots protest movement].\u201d<\/p>\n

Protests have already kicked off in French universities, with activists angry about having to choose between the far right and a pro-business candidate. Some leaders of the Yellow Jacket movement, which rocked France in 2018 and 2019, are already calling on citizens to take to the streets.<\/p>\n

Discontent has also spread among leftwing voters, whose candidates were all knocked out of the first round of voting on April 10. Twenty-two percent of the electorate voted for far-left leader Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon in the first round and were particularly divided over options in the second.<\/p>\n

The France Unbowed party leader emerged as a champion of the left-leaning anti-Macron crowd, scoring highly in suburbs with a large immigrant population and with youth across the country, thanks in part to his green agenda.<\/p>\n

As Macron enters his second term, there will be plenty of opportunities for protest. The president was elected on a platform of reforming state pensions and pushing back the retirement age from 62 to 64 or 65 years old. He also wants to reform and introduce more autonomy in French schools, an ambition that will put him on a collision course with France\u2019s powerful teachers\u2019 unions.<\/p>\n

Macron\u2019s first mandate was hardly easy, marred by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Yellow Jacket protests that began over a green fuel tax. This time around, he vows that he has learned from mistakes, and promises a new method aimed at building consensus to push through reforms.<\/p>\n

But with inflation and energy prices going up, many observers believe the country is being primed for a backlash.<\/p>\n

{{The third round}}<\/p>\n

In the short term, Macron\u2019s opponents are already readying for battle ahead of the parliamentary election in June. The president needs a majority in the National Assembly to be able to push through his reforms and campaigning is not expected to be easy.<\/p>\n

Traditionally, French voters tend to vote the same way in presidential and parliamentary elections, so that the elected president and his government aren\u2019t at loggerheads as they begin their term.<\/p>\n

But for France\u2019s left, the parliamentary election offers an opportunity for revenge. M\u00e9lenchon came a close third in the first round of the presidential election and his camp hopes to capitalize on his success and thwart Macron\u2019s reform plans.<\/p>\n

Much attention will also be on Le Pen\u2019s National Rally, which will face competition or cooperation in the parliamentary election with Zemmour, who garnered 7 percent of the vote in the first round of the presidential election.<\/p>\n

The hard right usually fares badly in parliamentary elections as mainstream parties tend to unite to block them out of office. In 2017, the National Rally only got eight seats out of 577, though Le Pen got 33 percent of the vote in the presidential election that year.<\/p>\n

Le Pen pitched herself as the spokesperson for the downtrodden, the forgotten French against the urban elites. The French president has vowed to unite the country, but questions over how those voices are heard have never been more acute.<\/p>\n

\"Emmanuel<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{PARIS \u2014 Emmanuel Macron was reelected as president of France on Sunday but a powerful showing by his far-right rival Marine Le Pen \u2014 her strongest ever \u2014 spells trouble for his second term and sends a warning shot to NATO and the European Union.}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[72,75],"byline":[3060],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-45699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-featured-news-home","tag-homenews","byline-politico"],"bylines":[{"id":3060,"name":"Politico","slug":"politico","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":3060,"name":"Politico","slug":"politico","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45699\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45699"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=45699"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=45699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}