A12 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.MONDAY, APRIL 25 , 2022
the director of Sciences Po Lille, a
political science institute.
It also remains to be seen
whether his reelection will calm
the far-right currents shaking the
continent, or simply offer the bloc
a temporary reprieve.
The result reaffirms Macron’s
role as Europe’s de facto leader,
now that Angela Merkel has re-
tired as Germany’s chancellor and
her successor is engulfed by tur-
moil related to the war in Ukraine.
Macron will have another five
years to put his stamp on the
European Union, which he has
sought to turn in a French direc-
tion, stretching the strict fiscal
rules that were imposed when
Germany had the tighter grip.
“In Brussels, he’s now a very
strong figure,” said Guntram
Wolff, the head of Bruegel, a Brus-
sels-based policy think tank.
But there is a risk that with
Macron’s victory, Europe’s cen-
trists lose their sense of urgency
about the need to address the
growing concerns of citizens who
feel vulnerable, Schwarzer said.
When Macron faced off against
Le Pen five years ago, he beat her
by a margin of more than 30 per-
centage points. But that the gap
narrowed to the single digits at
certain points of this campaign
cycle suggests that Le Pen has
succeeded at normalizing her par-
ty and moderating her image.
But she has continued to stand
by many of her most radical pro-
posals. In this campaign, she advo-
cated for a referendum to end
immigration to France, for women
to be fined for wearing head-
scarves in public, and for a French-
first approach to policies that
would have put her in direct con-
frontation with European Union
laws and values.
Even if Le Pen made significant
gains compared with five years
ago, French citizens still ultimate-
ly chose a man who has wrapped
himself in the blue and gold flag of
the European Union.Birnbaum reported from Riga, Latvia.
Lenny Bronner in New York, James
Cornsilk in Paris, and Scott Clement in
Washington contributed to this report.happiness that has gripped a large
portion of French voters, who see
town centers dying out, French
factories moving to China, and a
trim, tailored president who has
sometimes struggled to demon-
strate that he can connect to “la
France profonde” — the nation’s
cultural identity outside cosmo-
politan Paris.
That unease could yet throttle
back his mandate after June par-
liamentary elections if he has to
share power with some of his
skeptics. His challenge is similar
to that of leaders from Washing-
ton to Rome to Berlin.
“The problem of populism does
not end with the Biden victory or
the Macron victory so long as the
root causes remain unaddressed,”
said Rosa Balfour, the director of
Carnegie Europe, the Brussels-
based branch of the U.S. think
tank. “Yes, Macron won a clear
mandate,” she said, but a growing
slice of France “voted for an agen-
da that is populist, pro-Russian
and anti-European.”
Should Macron’s rivals win
power in Parliament, his free-
trading ambitions within Europe
could be scaled back.
“It may result in a Macron who
is looking at more protection
through Europe,” said Daniela
Schwarzer, the Berlin-based exec-
utive director for Europe and Eur-
asia at the Open Society Founda-
tions.
Far-left candidate Jean-Luc
Mélenchon on Sunday called the
June legislative elections — which
are normally foregone conclu-
sions in France and favor the pres-
ident’s party and allies — the presi-
dential election’s “third round,”
suggesting a fierce electoral battle
ahead in the coming weeks.
In her speech, Le Pen had simi-
larly called on her supporters to
support her party in June. “The
game is not quite over,” she said.
Whether Mélenchon’s and Le
Pen’s hopes for the legislative elec-
tions can translate into a sizable
opposition against Macron re-
mained unclear Sunday. “There is
a great risk that the electorate will
not mobilize” for the two defeated
candidates, said Pierre Mathiot,election in half a century.
He has disappointed some of
his supporters by pushing
through tax cuts for the wealthy,
being less ambitious than some
hoped on climate change, and
tacking right on immigration in
ways that were calculated to ap-
peal to Le Pen voters but that also
echoed the messages from migra-
tion-skeptic leaders in Hungary
and elsewhere.
In his victory speech, Macron
addressed those who voted for
him despite their disagreements
with his presidency. Their “vote
will bind me for the years to come,”
he said.
He could still face an onerous
second term — marked by resis-
tance on the streets and in Parlia-
ment — that may further polarize
the country and embolden the
fringes of French politics.
“The question is, will he hear
the feeling of malaise that exists in
the French electorate? ... Will he
be able to change?” Martigny said.
“It’s a very divided country.”
Almost 60 percent of voters cast
their ballots for far-right or far-left
candidates in the first round of
voting this month.
After the election result became
clear on Sunday, clashes broke out
between protesters and police of-
ficers near Place de la République
in Paris and in the French cities of
Rennes and Lyon. Later in the
night, French police officers shot
at a vehicle in Paris after its driver
apparently tried to hit them at the
Pont Neuf bridge in the city center.
A police spokesman confirmed
that two people were shot and
killed, and another person was
injured, but he said there were no
indications that the incident was
linked to the election.
“Macron should try to listen to
all these people who are in diffi-
culty,” said Nathalie Meslin, 58, a
lawyer who voted for Macron in
Paris on Sunday, even though she
said she doesn’t agree with all of
his proposals. “In the next five
years, this anger is likely to grow,
and unfortunately we risk having
extremes come to power.”
Macron’s victory certainly did
not put an end to the roiling un-that a far-right victory had been
averted. “I am extremely happy
that Macron won,” said Daniella
Delva, 58, who was afraid of the
repercussions of a far-right victo-
ry on France’s role within Europe.
“Taking Europe away like this, it’s
not good for France,” she said.
“I want to let [Macron] have one
more term to continue what he
has put in place,” said Jean-
Philippe Dahene, 56, a Macron
voter in the far-right stronghold of
Hénin-Beaumont, citing the series
of crises that disrupted Macron’s
presidency, including the corona-
virus pandemic and the war in
Ukraine.
But a key question for Macron
will be whether most of the people
who voted for him embrace his
platform, or whether they really
wanted to prevent a Le Pen victo-
ry.
There’s not nearly the same lev-
el of enthusiasm for him as when
he first ran in 2017, launching his
own centrist political movement
and becoming France’s youngest
president.
The turnout rate on Sunday was
projected to be 72 percent, accord-
ing to France’s public broadcaster,
which would make it the lowest in
the second round of a presidentialEspecially while a war rages in
Ukraine that has united European
leaders to an unusual degree, a Le
Pen win would have sent a shock
wave through NATO and imper-
iled the flow of French weaponry
that has quietly flowed to Kyiv.
A Le Pen presidency also would
have replaced a fervent E.U. de-
fender with a fierce critic. France
and Germany are Europe’s pillars,
and policymakers in capitals
across the continent had been
watching the election with anxi-
ety.
European Commission Presi-
dent Ursula von der Leyen and
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
were among the first world lead-
ers to congratulate Macron. “To-
gether, we will move France and
Europe forward,” von der Leyen
wrote on Twitter.
President Biden, who has
worked closely with Macron on
Ukraine, tweeted: “France is our
oldest ally and a key partner in
addressing global challenges. I
look forward to our continued
close cooperation — including on
supporting Ukraine, defending
democracy, and countering cli-
mate change.”
On the streets of Paris, many on
Sunday night appeared relieved“two weeks of unfair, brutal and
violent methods” to prevent her
win, and she said that “tonight’s
result represents in itself a re-
sounding victory.”
Sunday’s result marked the far
right’s best finish in a French
presidential election. It was seven
percentage points higher than Le
Pen’s result in 2017.
She has had some success in
moderating her image and bring-
ing her party into the mainstream.
Her focus on bread-and-butter is-
sues also resonated with voters.
Still, the result was more deci-
sive than the final polling averages
that suggested Macron would win
by a margin of 10 to 12 percentage
points. The difference may be
partly explained by late-deciding
voters. Macron’s polling lead had
been increasing in the days before
the runoff, and France’s ban on
publishing new polls after Friday
night would have prevented fully
capturing that surge.
“The result is very disappoint-
ing for [Le Pen],” said Vincent
Martigny, a political scientist at
the University of Nice. “She ended
up very far from power.”
FRANCE FROM A
French voters give Macron another term, choosing centrism over far right
JEFF J MITCHELL/GETTY IMAGES THIERRY CHESNOT/GETTY IMAGESLEFT: French President Emmanuel Macron stands with his wife, Brigitte Macron, in Paris after his victory Sunday. RIGHT: Challenger Marine Le Pen gestures to supporters in Paris after the voting results
came in. Her showing against Macron marked the far right’s best finish in a French presidential election, and it was seven percentage points higher than her result against Macron in 2017.
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