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France’s Emmanuel Macron wins second term, defeats far-right leader

France's Emmanuel Macron wins second term, defeats far-right leader

Emmanuel Macron is the first French president to be re-elected since Jacques Chirac in 2002.

Paris:

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday defeated his rival Marine Le Pen in the presidential election, forecasts show, sparking a wave of relief in Europe that the far right has been prevented from taking power. .

The Macron Center won 57.0-58.5 percent of the vote against Le Pen by 41.5-43.0 percent, according to projections by polling companies for French TV channels. based on a sample of votes.

The results were narrower than in the second-round clash in 2017, when two similar candidates met in the run-up to Macron’s election winning more than 66% of the vote.

The results, which are expected to be confirmed by official results overnight, have caused great relief in Europe after fears a Le Pen presidency would cause the continent to lose control after Brexit and the departure of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi called Macron’s victory “great news for the whole of Europe”.

EU President Charles Michel said the bloc could now “believe in France for another five years” while commission chief Ursula von der Leyen quickly congratulated him and said she was “delighted to continue this excellent cooperation”. our great”.

In a speech to supporters in Paris, where she accepted the result but showed no signs of giving up on politics, Le Pen, 53, said she would “never abandon” the French and had prepare for legislative elections in June.

“The results represent a brilliant victory,” she said cheering.

The relatively comfortable win rate gives Macron a certain amount of confidence as he begins his second five-year mandate, but the election also represents the closest the far right has ever come to power in France. .

Macron is the first French president to be re-elected since Jacques Chirac in 2002 after predecessors Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande left office after just one term.

The 44-year-old will give a victory speech at the Champ de Mars in central Paris at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, where flag-waving supporters erupted in joy as the forecasts came out at 8pm according to reports. local time (1800 GMT).

High ambition

Macron will hope a less complicated second term will allow him to implement his vision of pro-business reforms and closer integration with the EU after his first term was overshadowed by protests. love, then the pandemic, and finally the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

But he will have to win over his opponents’ supporters and millions of French who didn’t bother to vote.

On the basis of official figures, polling organizations estimate that the abstention rate of 28%, if confirmed, would be the highest of any second-round presidential election since 1969.

The results of the first round on April 10 gave Macron a strong but not empty position to hold the presidency.

Convincing supporters of third-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon to hold the baton and vote for the former investment banker is Macron’s top priority in phase two of the campaign.

Macron will also need to ensure his party finds strong grassroots support to retain control of a parliamentary majority in the June legislative elections and avoid any awkward “coexistence” with a prime minister who doesn’t share his political views.

Bitter medicine for Le Pen

His highest priority is pension reform including raising the French retirement age, which Macron says is necessary for the budget but is likely to face strong opposition and opposition.

He will also have to quickly bounce back from the campaign trail in response to Russia’s onslaught on Ukraine, with pressure on France to ramp up weapons supplies to Kyiv and showing President Vladimir Putin is lose interest in any foreign policy.

For Le Pen, her third defeat in the presidential polls will be a bitter pill to swallow after years of efforts to make herself the elect and separate her party from the legacy. property of her founder, her father Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Critics insist her party is relentlessly far-right and racist while Macron has repeatedly pointed to his plan to ban the wearing of the headscarf in public if elected.

When Jean-Marie Le Pen reached the second round in 2002, the result stunned France and he won less than 18 percent in his next match against Chirac.

(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)

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