Macron wins French presidency, to sighs of relief in Europe

[webfact]

Macron wins French presidency, to sighs of relief in Europe

By Sudip Kar-Gupta

 

French President-elect Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech at his campaign headquarters after early results in the second round in the 2017 French presidential election in Paris, France, May 7, 2017. REUTERS/Lionel Bonaventure/Pool

 

PARIS (Reuters) - Emmanuel Macron was elected president of France on Sunday with a business-friendly vision of European integration, defeating Marine Le Pen, a far-right nationalist who threatened to take France out of the European Union.

 

The centrist's emphatic victory, which also smashed the dominance of France’s mainstream parties, will bring huge relief to European allies who had feared another populist upheaval to follow Britain's vote to quit the EU and Donald Trump's election as U.S. president.

 

Pollsters' projections gave Macron a winning margin of around 65 percent to 35 - a gap wider than the 20 or so percentage points that pre-election surveys had suggested.

 

Supporters of President Elect Emmanuel Macron celebrate near the Louvre museum after results were announced in the second round vote of the 2017 French presidential elections, in Paris, France May 7, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

 

Even so, it was a record performance for the National Front, a party whose anti-immigrant policies once made it a pariah in French politics, and underlined the scale of the divisions that Macron must now try to heal.

 

"I know the divisions in our nation, which have led some to vote for the extremes. I respect them," Macron said in an earnest address at his campaign headquarters, shown live on television.

 

"I know the anger, the anxiety, the doubts that very many of you have also expressed. It's my responsibility to hear them," he said. "I will work to recreate the link between Europe and its peoples, between Europe and citizens."

 

His immediate challenge will be to secure a majority in next month's parliamentary election for En Marche! (Onwards!), a political movement that is barely a year old, in order to implement his programme.

 

President Francois Hollande, who first brought Macron into national politics, said the result "confirms that a very large majority of our fellow citizens wanted to unite around the values of the Republic and show their attachment to the European Union".

 

Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, told Macron: "I am delighted that the ideas you defended of a strong and progressive Europe, which protects all its citizens, will be those that you will carry into your presidency".

 

Macron told German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a telephone call on Sunday after the result that he would travel to Berlin soon for talks.

 

Trump also tweeted his congratulations on Macron's "big win", saying he looked forward to working with him.

 

Macron's team successfully managed to skirt several attempts to derail his campaign - by hacking its communications and distributing purportedly leaked documents - that were reminiscent of the hacking of Democratic Party communications during Hillary Clinton's U.S. election campaign.

 

Allegations by Macron's camp that it had been targeted in a massive computer hack that compromised emails added last-minute drama on Friday night, just as official campaigning was ending.

 

YOUNGEST SINCE NAPOLEON

 

The 39-year-old former investment banker, who served for two years as economy minister under Hollande but has never previously held elected office, will become France's youngest leader since Napoleon.

 

Le Pen, 48, said she had also offered her congratulations. But she defiantly claimed the mantle of France's main opposition in calling on "all patriots to join us" in constituting a "new political force".

 

Her tally of around 35 percent was almost double the score that her father Jean-Marie, the last far-right candidate to make the presidential runoff, achieved in 2002, when he was trounced by the conservative Jacques Chirac.

 

Her high-spending, anti-globalisation 'France-first' policies may have unnerved financial markets but they appealed to many poorer members of society against a background of high unemployment, social tensions and security concerns.

 

Despite having served briefly in Hollande's deeply unpopular Socialist government, Macron managed to portray himself as the man to revive France's fortunes by recasting a political landscape moulded by the left-right divisions of the last century.

 

"I've liked his youth and his vision from the start," said Katia Dieudonné, a 35-year-old immigrant from Haiti who had brought her two children to Macron's victory rally outside the Louvre Palace in central Paris.

 

"He stands for the change I've wanted since I arrived in France in 1985 - openness, diversity, without stigmatising anyone ... I've voted for the left in the past and been disappointed."

 

CONTRASTING VISIONS

 

While Macron sees France's way forward in boosting the competitiveness of an open economy, Le Pen wanted to shield French workers by closing borders, quitting the EU's common currency, the euro, radically loosening the bloc and scrapping trade deals.

 

When he moves into the Elysee Palace after his inauguration next weekend, Macron will become the eighth - and youngest - president of France's Fifth Republic.

 

Opinion surveys taken before the second round suggest that his fledgling En Marche! (Onwards!) movement, despite being barely a year old, has a fighting chance of securing the majority he needs.

 

He plans to blend a big reduction in public spending and a relaxation of labour laws with greater investment in training.

 

A European integrationist and pro-NATO, he is orthodox in foreign and defence policy and shows no sign of wishing to change France's traditional alliances or reshape its military and peacekeeping roles in the Middle East and Africa.

 

His election also represents a long-awaited generational change in French politics that have been dominated by the same faces for years.

 

He will be the youngest leader in the current Group of Seven (G7) major nations and has elicited comparisons with youthful leaders past and present, from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to British ex-premier Tony Blair and even late U.S. president John F. Kennedy.

 

But any idea of a brave new political dawn will be tempered by a projected abstention rate on Sunday of around 25 percent, the highest this century, and by estimates that around 9 percent of those who did vote cast blank or spoiled ballots.

 

Many of those will have been supporters of the far-left maverick Jean-Luc Melenchon, whose high-spending, anti-EU, anti-globalisation platform had many similarities with Le Pen's.

 

Melenchon took 19 percent in coming fourth in the first round of the election two weeks ago, and pointedly refused to endorse Macron for the runoff.

 

France's biggest labour union, the CFDT, welcomed Macron's victory but said that the National Front's score was still worryingly high.

 

"Now, all the anxieties expressed at the ballot by a part of the electorate must be heard," it said in a statement. "The feeling of being disenfranchised, of injustice, and even abandonment is present among a large number of our citizens."

 

Like Macron, Le Pen will now have to work to try to convert her presidential result into parliamentary seats, in a two-round system that has in the past encouraged voters to vote tactically to keep her out.

 

She has worked for years to soften the xenophobic associations that clung to the National Front under her father, going so far as to expel him from the party he founded.

 

On Sunday night, her deputy Florian Philippot distanced the movement even further from him by saying the new, reconstituted party would not be called "National Front".

 

(Additional reporting by Ingrid Melander, Marina Depetris, Bate Felix and Sybille de la Hamaide; Writing by Richard Balmforth; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-05-08

[simple1]

Well done President  Macron - great news. All the best for building a stable and successful nation.

Edited May 7, 2017 by simple1

[Somtamnication]

Too bad. The EU is a bastion of corruption. I guess it continues.

[colinneil]

Personally i had hoped Le Pen would win.

She would have been a thorn in the side of the corrupt EU.

Macron will just be the EUs puppet.

[Grouse]

Great news!

 

Not had champagne for breakfast for ages!

 

I forecast 65/35 to boot!

 

Lets see the Germans complete a presidential hat trick ?

[canuckamuck]

I see the Europeans are firmly in the grip of their handlers.  France can be Merkel's lapdog again.

[heroKK]

Game over FRANCE, the puppet of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the evil tribe was elected, embrace yourself for major catastrophic events, at the end of his term this young chap will get less then 4% approval rate like his predecessor mentor, I never thought the french had an IQ less then 15 to figure out what is going on ?

 

Francoise holland deserves Nobel Price for his election science tactics, he was reelected by 65%, incredible how gullible the French are!

 

Edited May 8, 2017 by heroKK

[Luckysilk]

The rest of Europe will see his win and move to the right.

 

The EU is in shambles and this muppet isn't the man to run France.

[heroKK]

16 minutes ago, Luckysilk said:

The rest of Europe will see his win and move to the right.

 

The EU is in shambles and this muppet isn't the man to run France.

Hollande is genius, yeah he got 4% approval rate but his creation and strategy won, Dupont-Aignan ou Asselineau was the ideal candidate but the average French is not too smart to figure that out !

Edited May 8, 2017 by heroKK

[Aforek]

1 hour ago, colinneil said:

Personally i had hoped Le Pen would win.

She would have been a thorn in the side of the corrupt EU.

Macron will just be the EUs puppet.

5555

 

now she will have to go to justice in Europe and France because she has stolen millions of € ; you said " corrupted " 5555  ; who is the most corrupted ? defaitists can say everything they want here, last night they have lost

I don't write messages here anymore about France, I am happy 

you can continue to whine, whitout me 

[heroKK]

 

did you read  Macron's leaks yesterday from the wikileaks, he is a drug addict ordering ecstasy pill !!

 

Edited May 8, 2017 by heroKK

[heroKK]

[cooked]

8 minutes ago, Aforek said:

5555

 

now she will have to go to justice in Europe and France because she has stolen millions of € ; you said " corrupted " 5555  ; who is the most corrupted ? defaitists can say everything they want here, last night they have lost

I don't write messages here anymore about France, I am happy 

you can continue to whine, whitout me 

I' haven't heard or read about this, please give sources. And please try  to do it without using contemptuous words like 'Whine".

[bannork]

But the Brexiteers said the EU was falling apart and the UK would not be alone for long.Apart from France, Merkel's party did well in local elections recently and it looks like she's heading for another victory later in the year. 

[bendejo]

Good job, French folks, bucking the neo-fascist trend!

 

 

 

Edited May 8, 2017 by bendejo

[lust]

RIP France

[heroKK]

15 minutes ago, bendejo said:

Good job, French folks, bucking the neo-fascist trend!

 

 

 

believe it or no, it is not a neo facist trend, my aunt voted for Melenchon (far left - eq Barnie sanders ) on the first round and voted for Le Pen on the second, people wants to defeat this world evil alliance !

Edited May 8, 2017 by heroKK

[hansnl]

3 hours ago, simple1 said:

Well done President  Macron - great news. All the best for building a stable and successful nation.

You probably mean great news for the Europhiles in Brussels.

Building a stable and successful nation?

Really?

The unelected, undemocratic clique in the EU will do anything to unbuild all the nations in Europe and by means of the sh*t euro make all the people poor.

Do remember the euro is only meant for big business, not for the common man.

[Prbkk]

Crushing defeat for the forces of darkness. It was always going to happen, even so it's a relief to wake up to see it confirmed. 

[Grouse]

The negativity on here is astonishing!

 

Look the people have spoken.

 

It's democracy!

 

Suck it up losers!

 

The majority is always right 

 

Vivre l'ironie ?

[Grouse]

29 minutes ago, hansnl said:

You probably mean great news for the Europhiles in Brussels.

Building a stable and successful nation?

Really?

The unelected, undemocratic clique in the EU will do anything to unbuild all the nations in Europe and by means of the sh*t euro make all the people poor.

Do remember the euro is only meant for big business, not for the common man.

Great news for europhiles everywhere and humanity generally! Where are you from? NL?

[Grouse]

1 hour ago, heroKK said:

 

did you read  Macron's leaks yesterday from the wikileaks, he is a drug addict ordering ecstasy pill !!

 

Ooh! An ecstasy pill! The naughty man ?

 

I'll bet he didn't need an ecstasy pill last night!!!

[aslimversgwm]

3 hours ago, Somtamnication said:

Too bad. The EU is a bastion of corruption. I guess it continues.

Evidence or just bombast? 

[aslimversgwm]

Puts the little Englanders to shame. Well done France. I  am definitely warming to the French and that's saying something coming from a trur Brit!

[heroKK]

17 minutes ago, Prbkk said:

Crushing defeat for the forces of darkness. It was always going to happen, even so it's a relief to wake up to see it confirmed. 

for the first time ever in the history of FN, Muslims and even other minorities and left wingers were campaigning for Le Pen, First time ever !!!

 

 

The French has a choice between a criminal regime, and a nationalist state !! excerpts "I will show you how many children did Sarkozy and Hollande has massacred in Libya, Syria and Yemen"

 

 

Edited May 8, 2017 by heroKK

[lust]

22 minutes ago, Grouse said:

The negativity on here is astonishing!

 

Look the people have spoken.

 

It's democracy!

 

Suck it up losers!

 

The majority is always right 

 

Vivre l'ironie ?

Yet I bet you hate Trump, right? Oh the irony. Liberalcucks, you made your beds, now go die in them. 

[sirmud63]

37 minutes ago, Grouse said:

The negativity on here is astonishing!

 

Look the people have spoken.

 

It's democracy!

 

Suck it up losers!

 

The majority is always right 

 

Vivre l'ironie ?

55555555

[i claudius]

44 minutes ago, Grouse said:

The negativity on here is astonishing!

 

Look the people have spoken.

 

It's democracy!

 

Suck it up losers!

 

The majority is always right 

 

Vivre l'ironie ?

We dont have to suck it up ,its the poor French that have to do that , we won , we voted to leave , so break out the champagne for Britain ,suck it up you French losers 

[Silurian]

Macron: 66%

Le Pen: 34%

 

Yep, a real smack in the face to the fascist right wing crowd. The last gasp of a dying breed of the ignorant privileged white male. Don't let the door hit you on the way out!

[heroKK]

The level of propaganda of the media between the two rounds was incredible. I have never seen that even in Communist China where I 've stayed some months !

 

Edited May 8, 2017 by heroKK