*Paromita Das
According to projected results from French polling agencies, Emmanuel Macron has held off a challenge from far-right leader Marine Le Pen to retain the French presidency.
On Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron defeated his far-right rival Marine Le Pen in a tense run-off election.
Macron is the first French President to be reelected for a second term in two decades, but the far-right was closer than ever. While the margin between the two candidates is large enough to ensure a comfortable victory, it is narrower than in previous polls.
Macron, the incumbent centrist, has received 57 percent to 58.5 percent of the vote in Sunday’s second-round runoff, while Le Pen, his nationalist opponent, is expected to receive 41.5 percent to 43 percent.
Macron has won convincingly, albeit by a smaller margin than in 2017, when he won by more than 30 percentage points to become France’s youngest president. While she fell short of the Élysée Palace for the third time, Le Pen appears to have received the most votes ever for a French far-right candidate.
Meanwhile, 6.35 percent of voters in the election cast blank ballots, voting for neither candidate.
Nevertheless, the new election results show a fractured France. Even though Macron successfully avoided a political earthquake if his opponent had won, the results show widespread dissatisfaction.
Recognizing this, the French president stated that he would seek to make amends.
Macron thanked his supporters and promised a more “independent France” and a “stronger Europe” in his victory speech on Paris’ Champ de Mars.
“I also know that many of our compatriots voted for me today, not to support the ideas I hold but to block those of the extreme right,” he said. “And I want to thank them here and tell them that I am aware that this vote binds me for the years to come.”
“From now on, I am no longer the candidate of one camp but the president of all,” he added.
À celles et ceux qui ont voté pour moi, non pour soutenir mes idées mais pour faire barrage à celles de l’extrême droite, votre vote m’oblige. Ce soir, je ne suis plus le candidat d’un camp, mais le Président de toutes et tous.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) April 24, 2022
This is Le Pen’s third defeat in the country’s presidential election, having previously run in 2012 and 2017. With all her efforts to soften her image and distance herself and the party from the legacy of the party’s founder, her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, this would undoubtedly be a bitter pill to swallow.
Following the election, officials in Europe and Washington were concerned about Le Pen’s challenge to the country’s mainstream order and the West’s unity against Russia. She supports Russian President Vladimir Putin while being skeptical of NATO and the European Union.
In a speech to supporters shortly after the projections were released, Le Pen conceded defeat but declared that her unprecedented vote total represented “a shining victory in itself”
Allocution de Marine Le Pen https://t.co/K6zT7FFfiw
— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) April 24, 2022
Following the close of polls in France at 8 p.m. local time (2 p.m. ET), polling firms Opinionway, Harris, and IFOP collaborated with media organizations to publish projected results based on early voting patterns. In the past, the method accurately predicted French elections.
The final outcome will be announced by the Interior Ministry on Monday. According to the ministry’s figures, Macron received 58.5 percent of the vote to Le Pen’s 41.4 percent.
She, like other challengers who were defeated in the first round of elections, has called for a renewed effort to thwart Macron’s second term in the June Parliamentary elections.
“This evening, we begin the great battle for legislative elections,” Le Pen declared, expressing “hope” and encouraging the President’s opponents to join her National Rally (RN) party.
According to the Interior Ministry website, the election saw a turnout of only 71.9 percent, the lowest in any presidential election second-round run-off since 1969, according to an AFP report.
The results brought a sigh of relief to Europe, which had feared that a Le Pen presidency would leave the continent stranded following Brexit and German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s resignation from politics.
#Francia Presidente Draghi: “La vittoria da parte di @EmmanuelMacron nelle elezioni presidenziali francesi è una splendida notizia per tutta l’Europa”#presidentielles2022
— Palazzo_Chigi (@Palazzo_Chigi) April 24, 2022
Félicitations, herzliche Glückwünsche, lieber Präsident @EmmanuelMacron. Deine Wählerinnen und Wähler haben heute auch ein starkes Bekenntnis zu Europa gesendet.
Ich freue mich, dass wir unsere gute Zusammenarbeit fortsetzen! pic.twitter.com/ZJQSc6OAz9— Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz (@Bundeskanzler) April 24, 2022
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