PARIS (Realist English). Emmanuel Macron won the second round of the French presidential election. He won 58.54% of the votes. His rival, the leader of the far-right National Unification party, Marine Le Pen, received 41.46%.
According to the Interior Ministry, about 18.8 million people voted for Macron, 13.3 million for Le Pen. At the same time, 28.01% of the French did not make their choice. This is the highest no-show rate since 1969. Macron became the first French president since 2002 to be re-elected for a second term.
Atlantic Council analyst and former French Ambassador to the United States Gérard Araud believes that the political uncertainty in France is not over yet.
“It means that French political uncertainties are not over. The worst scenario—a Donald Trump/Brexit moment—has been avoided, but it remains to be seen whether Macron will be able to govern by himself or will have to create a coalition with another party on the left or on the right.” the expert notes.
According to Araud, most of the French who voted for Marine Le Pen are not supporters of far-right ideas, but expressed their anger and indignation about the political and social system created by the Macron government.
“The 58 percent who voted for Macron were often less supporting him than opposing a candidate who remains unacceptable because of her father—an unreconstructed far-rightist—and of her lack of any executive experience.” the former French ambassador to the United States added.
In other words, Macron doesn’t have the mandate that the figures seem to promise:
“Furthermore, he will need to get a majority in the coming parliamentary elections in June. French voters typically give a majority to the president they have elected; it might be different this time. The French political landscape is a field of ruins: The traditional center-left and center-right parties have collapsed during these elections, and Macron’s centrist La République En Marche, which held the majority in the outgoing House, has not succeeded in establishing roots in the country and has lost all local elections since 2017. Therefore, the left and the right are trying to unite to prevent the president from getting a majority”.
Parliamentary elections in France will be held in two rounds on June 12 and 19. They will elect 577 deputies of the National Assembly, the lower house of the French Parliament.
