Sunday/ five more years of Macron

France and Germany are Europe’s pillars, and policymakers in capitals across the continent had been watching the election with anxiety.
-The Washington Post


Macron won 59% of the vote, and Le Pen just 41% (I’m using round numbers), quite a bigger margin than the 10-12% that polls had suggested.
It’s a decisive win, given the stark political divides in liberal democracies around the world.

Abstention figures around the country were at their highest of any second-round vote in France since 1969, though .. and almost 9% of voters that did show up, cast a blank vote, or invalidated their ballots (by crossing out both candidates, for example).

Macron has won, but faces big challenges. The parliamentary elections take place in June, and Macron’s La Republique en Marche (LaREM) and allies need a majority of 289 MPs in the 577-seat lower house. There’s also a cost-of-living crisis in France for poor people, and Macron has not implemented the pension reforms he had promised for his first term— the foremost of which is to raise the retirement age to 65 by 2031 (for those not working hard physical jobs).

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