Ceridwen
In the French election, Emmanuel Macron crushed his rival, Marine Le Pen, 66.1 percent to 33.9 percent, but nearly 37 percent of the electorate either abstained or cast blank or spoiled ballots. Voters divided along geographical lines as well, with Macron winning nearly 90 percent of the urban vote in Paris.
As the rest of the world celebrated the breakthrough victory of Emmanuel Macron in France’s presidential election, the French awoke today to a changed political landscape, with opponents of the young president-elect protesting in the streets and establishment politicians bickering over how to hang onto power in legislative elections coming in June.
Macron crushed his rival, Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front, with 66.1 percent of the vote to her 33.9 percent, but these figures mask a high degree of discontent in a country with a history of revolt in the month of May. Nearly 37 percent of the electorate either abstained or cast blank or spoiled ballots, meaning that Macron, 39, will enter the Elysée Palace with the support of fewer than 42 percent of the French.
Many of those who abstained support the party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a veteran politician of the far left, who refused to throw his support behind Macron despite the specter of the xenophobic, populist National Front taking over the presidency of a country dedicated to liberty, equality and fraternity. Supporters of Mélenchon were out demonstrating the day after the election, shouting anti-capitalist slogans as they marched toward the Place de la Bastille flanked by riot police.
Nearly 37 percent of the electorate either abstained or cast blank or spoiled ballots, meaning that Macron enjoys support of fewer than 42 percent of the French.
Mainstream parties find themselves in disarray after an election that saw the effective break-up of a system in which the center-right and center-left have alternately held power since the founding of the Fifth Republic in 1958.
The Socialist Party, the newspaper Le Monde wrote, “is in coalition with itself” due to a split between key figures who back Macron and others who don’t. The party’s candidate won an ignominious 6.3% in the first round after the unpopular outgoing president, François Hollande, declined to run. Unless the Socialists get their act together, they may find themselves relegated to a small minority in the new 577-seat National Assembly.
Things are no better on the center-right after voters rejected the candidate of Les Républicains, François Fillon, a former prime minister revealed to have put his wife and children on the parliamentary payroll to the tune of nearly a million dollars. Some of the party’s leaders have now embraced Macron, clearly hoping to find a job in his new government. At the same time, the party is fielding its own candidates in the legislative elections, due to be held in two rounds on June 11 and 18.
Macron, who campaigned on a pro-European Union, pro-modernization platform, will also face a renewed challenge from Le Pen, who has cast herself as the voice of the disinherited poor and vowed on Sunday night to reshape the National Front into a new political force dedicated to “patriots.”
The president-elect, whose inauguration will take place next Sunday, took pains in his victory speech before a young, ecstatic, flag-waving crowd outside the Louvre to stress that he would seek to build more flexibility into the country’s sclerotic economic system.
This flexibility is exactly what Macron’s opponents, including the powerful General Confederation of Labor union, most fear, as it will make it easier for employers not only to hire, but also to fire.
“We need greater social mobility,” Macron insisted during his bitter televised debate with Le Pen last week. He vowed to support the most fragile members of society while rewriting the rules of the country’s unemployment and retirement systems to help balance the budget and make the economy stronger.
Many political analysts have supported this effort, as did the urban French, who massively backed Macron in Sunday’s vote. He won nearly 90 percent of the vote in Paris.
“We need to introduce greater mobility into a society that is rigid and old,” Françoise Fressoz of Le Monde said on France-Inter radio on Monday.
But previous efforts to reform France’s social safety net have brought millions into the streets to protest, notably in 1995, when a general strike shut down public transport. While protests of that scope are not expected in the run-up to the legislative elections, the country is bracing for a tense few weeks.
France faces enormous challenges, including the terrorist threat, which Le Pen exploited in calling for France to close its borders. In a nod to those who backed him, Macron vowed Sunday to do all he could to ensure that the French would “never have a reason to vote for extreme candidates again.”
On Monday, as many in France and the rest of the world breathed a huge sigh of relief at Le Pen’s defeat, it was largely business as usual in Paris despite the angry march.
“We French are never content,” Alexis Bricogne, a thirty-two-year-old boutique manager, commented shortly after the anti-capitalists passed his shop. “We will demonstrate as usual, but not too much will happen. I think we are in fact rather glad to have this president instead of Madame Le Pen.”