Last Sunday, French voters elected Emmanuel Macron to a second term as president of France. He was reelected by about 59 percent of the vote, compared to 41 percent for Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Rally party.
Although plagued with low approval ratings and low voter turnout, it was a clear victory for Macron, who has been criticized as being arrogant and favoring the rich.
In his victory speech, Macron expressed a quiet determination to break with past habits, confront the “anger and disagreements” in the land, and to reach out to the many people who had only voted for him to keep out Le Pen, The New York Times reported.
Critics have noted that even in defeat, Le Pen’s run can signal a resurgence of far-right ideology in France.
Le Pen ran on an anti-immigration campaign favoring the values of the working class. She had also shown praise for Russian president Vladimir Putin and suggested that France should leave the European Union.
Even though she lost, Le Pen improved her score from the 2017 presidential race, in which she also ran against Macron, by 8 points—garnering slightly more than 41 percent of the votes, political analysts noted.
Joaquin Roy, professor of international studies and director of the European Center for Excellence at the University of Miami, addresses queries about the election and the incumbent.
What does this election mean for France?
It shows that France continues to be a leader in the European Union—a body that holds a cohesive Europe that has contributed to the peace of the continent. The absolute majority of the European Union member states governments did “vote” for Emmanuel Macron, since they support his presidency.
By contrast, LePen campaigned for a looser link to the European Union.
Although Marine Le Pen lost, she does have a strong following. What is her appeal?
She is attractive to a segment of the traditional extreme right, but she is also followed by the unemployed not covered by the traditional French welfare state and by many who oppose the proposed state’s decision to change the age of retirement.
Is this part of a trend that we are seeing in which electorates are moving to the extreme right?
In part, yes, but different than in other countries such as Hungary and Poland, which have established far right agendas and coalitions. Those countries are following models of government that have few checks and balances and suppress free expression.
Le Pen is supported by a growing sector of the French population that rejects immigration and yearns for traditional values.
What are some of the hot button issues that are affecting the French people right now?
There is a sort of rejection of the old-fashioned role of the “state” as a builder of the “nation.” Since the French Revolution, France is seen as the “state,” or government in which its representatives are the rulers and policy makers. Most French citizens had extreme confidence on the efficiency of the state. Now that efficiency has been eroding.
The French people are basically conservative socialists. They want to conserve what the social democracy has rendered.
Emmanuel Macron is perceived as being arrogant and not in touch with part of the populace. Do you feel he will amend his way of governing to increase his appeal?
That perception is only prevalent in sectors that never understood the central role of the presidency, a position with a certain prestige and authority that former president Charles de Gaulle considered to be crucial.
Since the foundation of the EU, the role of first-class Frenchmen has been central. Macron fits the role, as did de Gaulle, Jacques Delors, and François Mitterrand. Le Pen is not at that level and the EU that she proposes is destructive to its values and institutions.
A large sector of the French citizenship still supports the traditional “grandeur” of the official French system. By grandeur, I mean that many French believe the mystique of France as a former empire, that it is prestigious among all of Europe and all the people as French citizens are descendants from this great tradition and if not superior to others, at least have a certain privilege.
Macron will have to find ways to render the citizens who did not vote for him the global benefits of a system based in the reduction of unemployment, good public education, and retirement support.
