French President Emmanuel Macron managed to be re-elected with 58.54 percent of the votes in the two-round Presidential elections in the country. However, all opposition parties and media in the country warned that “the votes were cast not against Macron, but against the extreme right”.
In his speech after the election victory, Macron stated that he heard the message given to him by the ballot box, and promised to “create a dam to the far right and implement ecological and social policies with a new method in the next 5 years”.
The far-right candidates Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour and the radical leftist candidate Jean Luc Melenchon launched a campaign against Macron for the General Elections to be held 50 days later on election night. Pointing out the low number of turnout and protest votes, Melenchon said, “Macron has become the worst elected President of the Fifth Republic.”
The repetition of the duel between the ruling March to the Republic movement LAREM candidate Macron and the National Integration (RN) candidate Marine Le Pen shook the voters’ belief in “establishing a republican front against the extreme right”. In the presidential elections held on April 10, in the first round of the presidential elections in France, just like in the 2017 elections, Macron with 27.8 percent and Le Pen with 23.1 percent of the votes reached the second round.
In the second round, Macron was elected with 58.54 percent of the votes. Marine Le Pen also got 41.46 percent of the votes. 28 percent of the voters who said “Neither Macron nor Le Pen”, nearly 14 million, broke a historical record by not going to the polls. The number of French people who went to the ballot box and cast invalid and blank votes approached 4 million. The rate of voters who did not go to the polls was the lowest in 53 years, after 31 percent in the 1969 elections.
While President Macron succeeded in becoming “the first president to be elected for the second time without the need for a coalition government”, Marine Le Pen achieved a new success by increasing the 33 percent of the votes he received in the previous elections to 41 percent. While the government started lobbying for the balance of the new government and the Assembly, the opposition started the search for alliances for the General elections, which will be held in two rounds on 12 and 19 June, 50 days later.
Marine Le Pen, the losing candidate of the elections, called Macron on the phone right after the results, but neither side was informed about the content of the conversation. Jean Luc Melenchon, the candidate of the left voters who said “Choose me as the prime minister” between the two rounds and who succeeded in getting 22 percent of the votes in the first round and who supported Macron in the second round, said, “If you look at the low turnout and the invalid votes, you can see that the left votes went to Macron against the extreme right. “If you consider it, Macron is the worst elected president in the history of the republic with the lowest votes,” he said.
After the election night results were announced, Macron accompanied his wife Brigitte Macron and a group of children, accompanied by Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”, the anthem of the European Union, to deliver the congratulatory speech. Making a short and unenthusiastic speech, Macron said, “I am aware that this vote binds me for years to come,” and promised that he knows that the votes given to him are entrusted, so he will work with a different method in the next 5 years to create a threshold to the extreme right.
Addressing a France where increasingly deep divisions are reflected in the ballot box, Macron said that “the new power will not be the continuity of the five-year period that is coming to an end, and promised a “new era”. He said he would work to resolve the differences.
Warning from newspapers
The newspapers that appeared the next morning warned President Macron that “the votes cast for him are entrusted and he must implement policies that will unify the country.”
Humanite, one of the left-leaning newspapers, came out with the headline “Marine Le Pen was defeated, now it’s time to fight against Macron”. Drawing attention to the high score of the extreme right, the newspaper said, “The general elections will be decisive to put an end to the liberal policies of the president.”
The Liberation newspaper, which gave the most influential headline of the day, pointed out that Macron was elected with the left votes against the far right, and said, “Macron was re-elected: Who should he thank?” threw off his headline. “Macron owes his success to the left, which is taking action against the far right, which is stronger than ever before,” Liberation said.
Popular newspaper le Parisien, on the other hand, said that “Macron promised a better 5 years”, noting that the President had promised “to implement more social and ecological policy”. Stating that last night, right after the announcement of the results, the radical left leader Melenchon showed that they were already preparing for the elections in June, the newspaper said, “The new campaign started last night.” The liberal right-leaning newspaper Le Figaro, which supports Macron, wrote with the headline “Great victory, great difficulties” that Macron achieved an important success, but the difficulties were also great in his new term.
Both Zelensky and Putin congratulated
The first congratulatory messages came from Brussels and Berlin on the night Macron was elected. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz congratulated Macron by phone, while EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel also issued a congratulatory message on Twitter. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenski was among the first leaders to call and congratulate Macron. The next morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin also congratulated Macron, who was re-elected.
In his message shared on Twitter, Zelenski said, “I wish him more success for the good of the French people. I appreciate his support and believe that together we are moving towards new joint victories. Towards a strong and united Europe!” said.
US President Joe Biden tweeted the next day, “Congratulations Emmanuel Macron. France is our oldest ally and an important partner in tackling global challenges. Our continued close cooperation, including supporting Ukraine, defending democracy and tackling climate change. I look forward to continuing.”
On his Twitter account, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed that Washington expects to continue its close cooperation with Paris and said, “We look forward to continuing our close cooperation with France in global challenges and strengthening our alliance and longstanding friendship.”
“Macron get out” actions from the first night
During his campaign, Macron promised reform, planning to raise the legal retirement age to 65 in his first 100 days in office. However, on the night the election results were announced, the anti-Macron demonstrations in big cities in the country seemed to weaken the possibility of this reform being brought before the June elections.
As of Sunday evening, anti-fascist and anti-capitalist demonstrations, marked by violence in big cities, especially in the capital, Paris and Lyon, quickly dispersed with the intervention of the police. Activists, who took to the streets with the slogans “Macron get out!”, “Neither Macron, nor Le Pen”, protested Macron from the very first night.
In the Elysee Palace, where the new government lobbying is also concentrated, the views of leaving the retirement age to autumn and first of all the laws related to increasing the purchasing power are dominant.
The majority of French people do not want newly elected President-elect Emmanuel Macron to win the June general election, according to two polls released on Sunday evening.
According to a poll conducted by Opinionway for news channel Cnews and Radio Europe 1, 63 percent of respondents said they wanted Macron to “not have a majority and be forced into a coalition government”, while 35 said he should also get a majority in the House.
In another poll by Ipsos Sopra-Steria for France TV, Le Parisien and Radio France, 56 percent of respondents said they didn’t want Emmanuel Macron to “execute his program and lose the legislative election”, while 20 percent said he won the majority. He said he wished he did.