Macron
became the first French president since 2002 to win a second term, with 58.5
percent of the runoff vote, against 41.5 percent for the right-wing challenger,
Marine Le Pen, according to final results from the Interior Ministry. It was a
greater margin of victory than predicted by polls after the first round of
voting two weeks ago. Congratulating
Macron on Twitter, President Joe Biden called France “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 climate change,” Biden wrote. But Macron’s
victory was also narrower than in 2017, when he first faced off against the
anti-NATO, pro-Russia Le Pen. Fewer voters backed Macron this time around, as
the highest abstention rate for a runoff presidential election in half a
century — 28 percent — pointed to rising political disillusionment and economic
grievance. Clément
Beaune, Macron’s junior minister for European Affairs, acknowledged on CNN that
France was “divided” and “worried,” especially about pocketbook issues such as
the cost of living and energy prices. “Now we have
to work on this,” Beaune said Monday. “Big
victory, big challenges,” was Monday’s headline in Le Figaro, a right-leaning
daily. The left-leaning Libération noted the widespread frustration with Macron
and hailed the “political maturity of the French people who, sometimes while
holding their noses, mobilized to refuse the chimeras of far-right populism.” In the city
of Rennes and in Paris, small demonstrations against Macron’s reelection
briefly turned violent Sunday night as protesters clashed with riot police
officers, leading to a few arrests. France’s
political forces now turn their attention to the elections for the lower house
of Parliament in June, a crucial test for Macron, whose coalition holds a
strong legislative majority. Results then will determine how far he can go in
pursuing his domestic agenda. “Macron’s
biggest challenge will be to create a sense of cohesion in an extremely
fragmented country where the far right gets 41 percent of the vote,” said Tara
Varma, head of the Paris office of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
“The political reconfiguration that started five years ago will now be
completed as new alliances are bound to emerge.” Macron’s
first priority will most likely be to push through a new relief package for
French consumers, including measures to increase pensions and some welfare
benefits, extend energy subsidies and beef up a policy that allows companies to
grant workers tax-free bonuses. In the fall, Macron is expected to tackle one
of his most contentious plans: increasing the legal retirement age. Le Pen will
seek to remain in Parliament, where she has occupied a seat since 2017, Louis
Aliot, a top official in her National Rally party, told the radio station
France Inter on Monday. Her party got only a handful of lawmakers elected that
year and hopes to build on her presidential showing. “Now it is
another election that is starting, and more important, it is 577 elections that
are starting,” Aliot said, referring to the number of seats that will be up for
grabs. Even some of
Macron’s supporters were doubtful that he would obtain the same sweeping
majority as he did in 2017, when many political newcomers rode the wave of
enthusiasm he generated into office. At Macron’s
victory celebration Sunday on the Champs de Mars in Paris, where people danced
and waved French flags in the shadow of an Eiffel Tower sparkling with lights,
the mood was relief more than jubilation. Dustin
Bourgeois, 23, an air traffic controller, said Macron was the “most reasonable,
most stable” leader for the country. But he added, “There are two camps today
in France: the extremes and the center, not to mention those who abstained.” Of the
legislative elections, he said: “I think it’s going to be different, and that
worries me. It’s going to be hard.” © 2022 The
New York Times Company