In Hénin-Beaumont (Pas-de-Calais), Sunday April 24, 2022, when the results of the second round of the presidential elections were announced. CYRIL BITTON / DIVERGENCE FOR “THE WORLD”
The day after the second round of the French presidential election, the western press agrees. “The word that sums up the result of the French presidential election is: ‘Phew’,” writes Die Welt, one of Germany’s three largest daily newspapers, France’s leading partner in Europe. Emmanuel Macron was re-elected President of the Republic on Sunday April 24 with 58.54% of the vote against far-right candidate Marine Le Pen (41.46%). A result that leaves the European and American media “relieved but not pleased,” says the German weekly Der Spiegel.
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Emmanuel Macron’s victory in the middle of the war in Ukraine is proving “crucial”, according to several foreign press titles. Many write that the election of Marine Le Pen – “a candidate hostile to NATO, the European Union [UE]the United States and the core values” of France, according to The New York Times, would have been a conflagration well beyond France’s borders.
The outgoing president’s victory “provides continuity for France and five more years of political stability for the European Union of twenty-seven,” shaken by the rise of populism, Brexit in 2016, migration crises and the war in Ukraine, which has now lasted more than two months , estimates the Washington Post.
“We heard France’s allies in Europe and NATO breathe a sigh of relief” after Emmanuel Macron’s victory, writes the Financial Times, for which the re-election of the head of state “guarantees France’s status” for the next five years. as a pillar of the EU and a major contributor to NATO in its support of Ukraine against Russia”.
“If Le Pen had won, it would have been Putin’s most resounding victory without bloodshed. The EU would be destroyed, Germany deprived of its main partner, nuclear weapons in the hands of a pro-Putin nationalist,” Der Spiegel said.
The German magazine, like several other press titles, recalls the ties of the far-right candidate and her party, the National Assembly (RN), to Vladimir Putin’s Russia. “Europe now has an undisputed leader in Macron,” Der Spiegel continues, echoing the Washington Post’s analysis of the balance of power within the EU.
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“No reason to be happy”
Added to this, as pointed out by the foreign press, is the “historic” nature of this election, which resulted in the outgoing President being “reappointed for a second term as President for the first time under the Fifth Republic (…) without the this was the case of coexistence,” notes Le Temps.
However, according to the Swiss daily, “the current tenant of the Elysée cannot be satisfied with its excellent score of 58% without looking at the country as it is”: “more polarized than ever”. Because a victory has a “bitter aftertaste”, according to the Brussels daily Le Soir, and is also a “kind of defeat”. For the foreign press, it is indeed the image of a deeply divided country emerging from the French presidential election, marked by a record abstention since 1969 and by “the best far-right result in a French presidential election,” notes the Washington Post election.
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This score, according to the Spanish newspaper El Pais, gives “no reason to be happy” and should serve as a warning. The “majority in the second ballot does not mean a vote of approval [Emmanuel Macron] and on its agenda, but above all a rejection of the extreme right,” says the major Madrid daily in its editorial of the day, which calls for the “reunification of a broken France”.
“In the next five years [Emmanuel Macron] will lead a country where almost half of the electorate support policies that would force France to leave the EU, amend the constitution by referendum to create discrimination between French and foreigners, and where the anti -System protest vote, if we take into account the votes of the populist left, is well over 50%. »
For the BBC, this rise of the two “extremes”, the left and the right, is the result of the reconfiguration of the political landscape that Emmanuel Macron wanted. Five years ago, his victory caused the collapse of the two historic parties that structured French politics around two currents: the socialist left and the republican right. Voters today who are going to the extremes “are doing so because the success of the Macron revolution leaves them with nowhere to go if they want to oppose him,” notes the BBC.
“Don’t play Russian roulette with the future of Europe”
For the immediate future, this deep political split leaves uncertainty about the start of the term and the next elections in France, the general elections that will take place on June 12th and 19th. Le Temps therefore predicts that France will quickly become “a political battlefield” again.
“Dreamings of radical change in 2017 gave way to fears of a political confrontation in the heart of summer,” writes The New York Times. For the American daily, Emmanuel Macron’s re-election is the result of “his effective management of the Covid-19 crisis, his economic recovery and his political ability to occupy the entire middle of the political spectrum”. But the head of state’s “political capital” is “more limited” than five years ago and the “aversion” against him runs “deep” among his opponents. The Financial Times agrees, believing that “Macron’s second term could be even more tumultuous than the first” while the re-elected president “risks losing his parliamentary majority.”
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More generally, the danger of France electing a “nationalist and Eurosceptic force” is not far off, Politico Europe believes. “A far-right populist has won an unprecedented percentage of the vote. There is no reason to believe that this score could not be higher next time,” warns the weekly, for which in 2027 “a better candidate than Le Pen (…) could ride the wave of popular anger [qui s’est exprimée dimanche] until victory is won.” It is therefore necessary, the article goes on to say, “to reflect on how France – co-founder and indispensable pillar of the European Union – can avoid playing Russian roulette with the future of Europe every five years.”
Politico therefore calls for a reflection on the institutional, political and electoral functioning in a country where the president is “too powerful” and the role of parliament is reduced to that of a “registry chamber” as long as the head of state has majority support.
“A possible anti-European populist victory in France is not inevitable. But the country needs to find a better way to give its citizens more political choices. It can’t go on like this,” cuts the Brussels-based media.
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El Pais also reads a much deeper risk in Sunday’s results that every country should consider, concluding:
“France has sent a signal to the democracies. When certain shared values disappear, when party representativeness collapses, and when leaders are unable to speak to (and above all listen to) the whole country, democracies risk falling into the hands of the extremes. Preventing this will be Emmanuel Macron’s main task in his second term. This is where his legacy plays out. »