Emmanuel Macron is set to celebrate victory over far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in the French presidential election, initial results suggest. While the results have yet to be officially verified, …
Emmanuel Macron is set to celebrate victory over far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in the French presidential election, initial results suggest. While the results have yet to be officially verified, early projections suggest that Macron bested his opponent easily with over 65 percent of the vote, which aligns with pre-election opinion polling released by French surveyors Elabe on Friday after a televised debate between the two candidates.
This election has been the subject of much speculation and was seen as somewhat of a mirror of the 2016 US Presidential Election, pitting far-right populist Le Pen of the National Front Party against the Centrist and former investment banker Macron. The French results, however, are starkly contrasting with the results of the US Election, with voters overwhelmingly choosing the banker over the populist.
Le Pen has stated that she called to congratulate Macron on his win, conceding defeat. She has sworn to her supporters that she will remain true to the values of the National Front and continue to push her agenda in the European Parliament, where she has held a seat since 2009. Current French President François Hollande has also publicly congratulated his successor, who was Hollande’s Minister of Economy and Finance until August 2016.
J’ ai appelé @EmmanuelMacron pour le féliciter chaleureusement pour son élection. Je lui ai exprimé tous mes vœux de réussite pour notre pays
— François Hollande (@fhollande) May 7,2017
Le Pen, who took over the National Front after she removed her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, as leader of the party, ran on a “France First” platform of Anti-Immigration and taking a hard line on Islamic terrorism. Her stance on those issues combined with French public opinion of her father and the party he once helped to found likely had some effect on her polling number. The elder Le Pen was prosecuted for a number of statements constituting Holocaust Denial, which is illegal in France under the Gayssot Act.
Macron, on the other hand, is pro-EU, and favors strengthening borders but believes that French National Security policies have unfairly targeted Muslims. In another similarity between the Franch and US Presidential Election, a file dump of hacked Macron emails was recently released, ostensibly in the hopes of influencing the Franch election for Le Pen. The attempt was ultimately unsuccessful, as seen by the large margin of victory in the election results that exit polling is showing.
Macron has already been congratulated by British Prime Minister Theresa May. “The Prime Minister warmly congratulates President-elect Macron on his election success, ” said a Downing Street spokesperson, publicly relaying May’s congratulatory message. “France is one of our closest allies and we look forward to working with the new President on a wide range of shared priorities.”
This article will be updated as more information becomes available.
[Featured Image by Bob Edme/AP Images]
