Triumphant Macron vows to fight divisions

Paris, Tuesday

Emmanuel Macron won a resounding victory in the French presidential election but the focus today shifted immediately to whether he can govern the country without the support of a traditional party.

At 39, the pro-EU former investment banker will become France’s youngest-ever president when he is inaugurated next weekend after crushing far-right leader Marine Le Pen in a run-off vote yesterday.

The European Union breathed a sigh of relief at the election of a supportive French leader and the euro briefly hit a six-month high, but Macron faces a formidable challenge to enact his programme while trying to unite a fractured and demoralised country.

“I know the anger, the anxiety and the doubts that a large number of you have expressed,” Macron told thousands of cheering and flag-waving supporters at a victory party in the courtyard of the Louvre museum in Paris.

“I will fight with all my strength against the divisions that are undermining us,” he said. Final results showed he had won 66.1 per cent of the votes to 33.9 per cent for Le Pen. But many commentators said the fact that a third of the electorate either abstained or cast blank or spoiled votes yesterday showed Macron would start his mandate under intense scrutiny.

The left-wing paper Liberation said he was “under pressure”, even before his inauguration which is set to take place next Sunday. “The high abstention rate, despite the threat of the far-right, is a sign already of dissatisfaction with the new president,” it said in an editorial. Macron, a former economy minister, has proposed an ambitious domestic reform agenda.

He wants to ease rigid labour laws he believes fuel high unemployment, cut state spending, improve education in deprived areas and increase welfare protection to the self-employed.

But he is inexperienced - the presidential election was the first time he had stood for office - he has no political party and he faces a huge task to fashion a working parliamentary majority after legislative elections next month.

His centrist En Marche (On the Move) movement, barely a year old, has said it will field candidates in every constituency in the two-round election in June. There is scepticism however about Macron’s ability to win a majority with En Marche candidates, meaning he might have to form a coalition.

“In order for us to act, we will need a majority in the National Assembly,” En Marche secretary general Richard Ferrand told TF1 television. One of Macron’s immediate tasks will be to name his prime minister who will govern between now and the parliamentary elections on June 11 and 18, and perhaps beyond.

Macron said before Sunday’s vote he had made his choice but would not reveal the name. He has previously said he would like to appoint a woman. On Monday, he appeared alongside the man he will succeed as president, President Francois Hollande, at the commemoration of Victory in Europe day on May 8, 1945. — AFP

The post Triumphant Macron vows to fight divisions appeared first on Mediamax Network Limited.