Paris, April 26 (AFP\/APP): French President Emmanuel Macron faced the daunting challenge of uniting a deeply divided nation Monday after winning re-election in a battle against Marine Le Pen that saw the far right come its closest yet to taking power.<\/p>\n
Centrist Macron won 58.54 percent of the vote in the second-round run-off compared with 41.46 for Le Pen, according to final results from the interior ministry.<\/p>\n
Macron is the first French president in two decades to win a second term and his victory prompted a sigh of relief throughout Europe.<\/p>\n
But his victory over his far-right rival was narrower than their last face-off in 2017 when Macron won over 66 percent. Le Pen’s result this time around was the best ever for the far right.<\/p>\n
The president already has an overflowing in-tray, ranging from preparing for parliamentary elections in June to implementing explosive pension reform plans and dealing with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
“The difficulties are going to start real soon,” Brice Teinturier, managing director at public opinion specialists Ipsos France, told AFP.<\/p>\n
Addressing supporters late Sunday, Macron vowed to heal rifts in a deeply divided country, promising a response to the “anger” that prompted many French to vote for the far right.<\/p>\n
Turnout was the lowest in any presidential election second-round run-off since 1969 and, in another striking sign of disenchantment with politics, 8.6 percent of people who voted either delivered a blank ballot or spoilt their papers.<\/p>\n
“We need to respond to the angry and worried messages from millions of French people who say ‘I can’t make ends meet’,” Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Monday.<\/p>\n
The 44-year-old president now faces parliamentary elections in June, where keeping a majority will be critical for his ambitions.<\/p>\n
“Macron’s biggest challenge will be to create a sense of cohesion in an extremely fragmented country,” said Tara Varma, senior policy fellow and head of the Paris office of the European Council on Foreign Relations.<\/p>\n
French daily Le Monde called Macron’s win “an evening of victory without a triumph”.<\/p>\n
Conservative daily Le Figaro said Macron’s win was “no mean feat”, but also asked: “Who can possibly believe that it is rooted in popular support?”<\/p>\n
Within the next two weeks, Macron is expected to reshuffle his government, with the departure of Prime Minister Jean Castex a near certainty, and several other ministers also being replaced.<\/p>\n
“Many in government are exhausted and he needs new blood,” said one Elysee official, asking not to be named.<\/p>\n
Macron will aim for gender parity in his next cabinet and has said he would like to see a woman become his next prime minister.<\/p>\n
For Le Pen, her third defeat in a presidential poll was a bitter pill after years of effort at making herself electable. But she made clear she still had political ambitions.<\/p>\n
On Sunday Le Pen, 53, said she would “never abandon” the French and declared that she had scored a “brilliant victory” in her defeat to Macron.<\/p>\n
For the upcoming parliamentary elections, her party has not formed an alliance with that of far-right rival Eric Zemmour, who scored 7 percent in the first round of the presidential election.<\/p>\n
Senior Le Pen aide Jean-Philippe Tanguy said Monday that Zemmour would have to acknowledge that she was the leader of the opposition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Paris, April 26 (AFP\/APP): French President Emmanuel Macron faced the daunting challenge of uniting a deeply divided nation Monday after winning re-election in a battle against Marine Le Pen that saw the far right come its closest yet to taking power. Centrist Macron won 58.54 […]<\/p>\n
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