MACRON DEFEATS LE PEN FRANCE DECIDES ON COUNTRY’S FUTURE THROUGH RUNOFF ELECTION
PRESIDENT OF FRANCE EMMANUEL MACRON AT THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT JAN. 2022. COURTESY OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
ALBERTO ALONSO PUJAZON BOGANI On April 24, the French people voted in a runoff election between current president Emmanuel Macron and political opponent Marine Le Pen, as reported by Reuters. The polls opened at 8 a.m. Sunday and closed at 8 p.m. the same day—with Macron winning reelection. The outcome of the election could be highly decisive for what the future of France will look like. Centrist, pro-European Union Macron and far-right Euroskeptic Le Pen had been battling in a tight race for weeks. Were Macron to have been unseated, the potential results have been likened to a “political earthquake,” according to Reuters. Analysts called Le Pen an unpalatable candidate for many, despite her efforts to soften her image as well as tone down some of the policies of her National Rally party. In the days leading up to the race, several opinion polls gave Macron a solid and growing lead though a Le Pen victory could not be completely ruled out of the picture. Neither candidate had counted enough core supporters on any poll to win the election. The weight of the election was placed upon the shoulders of the undecided and anxious— those considering the implications of a far-right presidency in France, following anger and unrest that has been present since Macron’s 2017 election. A victory for Le Pen may have caused a level of political
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upheaval in Western democracies comparable to the waves of conflict following UK’s Brexit and the United States’ election of Donald Trump in 2016. Le Pen’s presidency would have marked an end to decades of rule by mainstream French leaders and imposed threats to the future political stability of the European Union.
THE WEIGHT OF THE ELECTION WAS PLACED UPON THE SHOULDERS OF THE UNDECIDED AND ANXIOUS. When there were only three hours left to vote in France, approximately 63% of France’s registered voters had cast their ballots, two points lower than during the 2017 French presidential election which had already taken the title for France’s lowest voter turnout in nearly a century. Macron, who beat Le Pen in the election five years ago, had warned of a civil war should Le Pen be elected and her policies
instituted, including one to ban all Muslim headdresses. Macron had called upon all liberals to back him. Le Pen found support from her campaign followers, in a similar style to Trump’s 2016 Make America Great Again campaign, targeting lower-class, working people with the claim that their lives would be improved. Le Pen focused on finding a solution to the rising cost of living in France, which is the world’s seventh-largest economy. Another primary focus was disparaging Macron’s abrasive style of leadership which she has claimed was a display of elitist contempt for ordinary people. “The question on Sunday is simple: Macron or France,” she said during a rally in the town of Arras, located in northern France. Le Pen denied accusations of racism and deflected criticisms from Macron for her past admiration of Russian President Vladimir Putin. She claimed that her proposed policies to give priority to French citizens for social housing and jobs as well as scrapping several welfare programs currently in place for foreigners would be a benefit for all French, regardless of religion or origin. Though Macron won the presidency, the one thing that is clear is protests and civil unrest may still come, not only isolated to France but spread across the entire European continent—as tumultuous elections become ubiquitous.
PSU Vanguard • APRIL 27, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
