Opinion Outsiders in Élysée
Liberals take solace in Marine Le Pen’s performance, but there are echoes of Brexit sentiment in French elections.
A former investment banker, Macron was minister for economy, industry and digital affairs in the Francoise Hollande government before he started En Marche!, a new banner from which he launched his presidential bid.
Whatever the result of the May 7 run-off election, one thing is certain: The next president of France will not be a figure of the political establishment. Both Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron, the two candidates with the most votes in the first round of polling, will be fairly unusual heads of state in the Fifth Republic of France, set up in 1958 by Charles De Gaulle.
A former investment banker, Macron was minister for economy, industry and digital affairs in the Francoise Hollande government before he started En Marche!, a new banner from which he launched his presidential bid. Pro-EU and pro-business, Macron’s emergence as the frontrunner with 24 per cent of the vote is quite the political feat — given his lack of experience in mass politics or a party base. Le Pen, who has tried to paint herself as a less polarising figure than her father Jean-marine, a former leader of her party, the National Front, posted an underwhelming performance with just 21.4 per cent of the vote. Meanwhile, Benoit Hamon of the incumbent socialist party had less than 7 per cent voteshare and the conservative Francois Fillon, a former prime minister, had 19.9 per cent. But perhaps most surprising, the far-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon received 19.6 per cent of the vote.
While liberal, democratic voices are taking solace in the fact that the anti-European Union and anti-migrant Le Pen did worse than predicted by opinion polls, Sunday’s election does throw up some difficult questions for centre and centre-right politics in France as well as Europe as a whole. Between Melenchon, Le Pen and Macron, nearly 70 per cent of voters have chosen to reject the candidates from France’s usual political palate. Both Melenchon and Le Pen are nativist and anti-EU, one from the extreme right, the other from the far left. The nativist sentiment highlighted by Brexit certainly has echoes in France. The liberal centre can ignore that message from the people only at their own peril.
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