French President Emmanuel Macron won the second round of the presidential election with 58.2% of the vote, compared to 41.8% for his opponent Marine Le Pen. This means a new, 5-year term for Macron. He is the first president to win a second term in 20 years.
Election day in the French state ended at exactly 20.00. Macron’s supporters are already looking forward to it in front of the Eiffel Tower. He is about to deliver his first speech as a newly elected president. No one in France doubted Macron’s victory. For many French people, the choice was not easy, as neither candidate was liked enough.
“Tonight’s results are a resounding victory in themselves,” said Marine Le Pen after election day.
The runoff was a repeat of the duel between the two from 5 years ago, which was won by Macron with 66 against 34%.
Photo: BGNES
The two rivals clashed in the last days of the election campaign, including on Wednesday, when they took part in a televised debate face to face. Macron said the loan Le Pen’s party received in 2014 from a Czech-Russian bank made it unsuitable to work with Moscow amid its invasion of Ukraine. He also said her plans to ban French Muslim women from wearing headscarves in public places would spark a “civil war” in the country, which has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe.
“When someone explains to you that Islam is tantamount to Islamism, tantamount to terrorism, tantamount to a problem, these are definitely far-right views,” Macron told AFP on Friday.
Photo: BGNES
What did the two candidates propose in their election programs?
Marin Le Pen transformed the former National Front, turning his father’s party, whose economic ideals were the free market and the small government, into a protectionist party at high cost. It wants to introduce a “buy French” policy on public procurement, reduce the minimum retirement age to 60 for those who started work 20 years ago, abolish the income tax for people under 30 and reduce VAT on energy from 20 to 5.5 percent, Reuters notes. It also promises to spend 2 billion euros over five years to raise the salaries of health workers and hire an additional 10,000 people in the health sector. Teachers’ salaries will increase, she said, by 15 per cent in five years if she becomes president.
Le Pen claims that there is no “secret plan” for France to leave the EU, its single currency or the Schengen area. Opponents say her policy will, at best, lead to new tensions in the bloc, whose unity has been tested in recent years by the migration crisis, the UK exodus and the covid pandemic, and at worst, by Frexit. . Le Pen said he would reduce France’s contributions to the EU budget, renegotiate the Schengen agreement and reintroduce checks on goods entering the country from other EU countries. It will seek to restore the rule of French law.
Macron plans to increase the minimum retirement age from 62 to 65 years. “I don’t want to increase our taxes, I don’t want to increase our debt, I even want to start paying it off in the next five years,” Macron said during the debate. “That’s why I want to work harder.” The convinced Europhile will continue to push for the development of his so-called “strategic autonomy” of Europe in the fields of defense, technology, agriculture and energy, and will reduce the bloc’s dependence on other forces. Macron is seeking to reorient the EU to a more protectionist stance, blocking some free trade deals with other blocs such as South America’s Mercosur and setting up a mechanism to tighten controls on foreign acquisitions of EU strategic companies.
In good spirits and with a sense of humor, Emmanuel Macron voted in the northern French town of Le Touquet, where he was greeted by applause from supporters.
Marin Le Pen also exercised his right to vote. And while after the first round the far-right nationalist was very close to Macron, today analysts give a lead of more than 10% for the head of state.
For many French people, the choice is definitely not easy. Between fears of Le Pen’s takeover and dissatisfaction with a number of areas of Macron’s rule, some French people went to the polls but did not choose a single candidate in protest.
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