Macron Takes Charge of Divided France as Youngest President (1)
Emmanuel Macron became the youngest president of France on Sunday, leading a country where economic malaise and security concerns drove extremist parties to their highest-ever scores in this year’s election.
Macron is the eighth directly elected president of the Fifth Republic, after assuming the role in a ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris.
The new head of state takes charge of continental Europe’s leading military power and second-largest economy as both an outsider and an insider. The 39-year-old benefited from the electorate’s desire for fresh faces and solutions, as the first president in the modern era to be elected without the support of France’s two main traditional parties. But he was his predecessor Francois Hollande’s economic adviser for more than two years and is deeply familiar with the administration’s inner workings.
“Most presidents land in the Elysee Palace with no idea how it functions, and they learn on the job, ” said Patrick Weil, a historian and political scientist with the CNRS research center in Paris. “Macron has worked there a couple years, was even the deputy chief of staff. He knows the corridors of the Elysee and how it works. He even knows the drivers.”
Rain Stopped
Macron, who arrived in a Renault armored car just as it stopped raining, walked up a red carpet to the Elysee steps where Hollande waited to welcome him. The two men shook hands and went up to the president’s office where they met for a private talk before the ceremony when, among other things, France’s nuclear codes were passed on. Afterward, the Elysee’s new tenant escorted the outgoing president to his car.
About 300 guests attended Macron’s inauguration inside the Elysee’s reception hall in the building’s west wing. The hall overlooks gardens where the ceremony was due to continue with the singing of the national anthem and a traditional 21-gun salute from cannon placed at the nearby Invalides.
Macron wore a dark suit that cost 450 euros ($491) , made by his usual Paris tailor, his aides said by text message. His spouse, Brigitte Macron, wore a lavender-blue dress designed for her by Louis Vuitton’s Nicolas Ghesquiere and carried a purse loaned to her by the brand.
Splintered Electorate
Macron defeated the National Front’s Marine Le Pen by 66 percent to 34 percent in the May 7 runoff after the most divisive and tumultuous election in the past half a century. While that’s the widest winning margin since Le Pen’s even-more-extreme father Jean-Marie qualified for the second round in 2002, the result hides a splintered electorate.
Polls show that at least half of those who voted for Macron did so to keep out Le Pen, who planned to leave the euro, impose trade protectionism and stop immigration. Macron ran on an unabashedly pro-European and pro-business platform, but in April 23’s first round of voting about half the electorate chose Le Pen or other extremist candidates who oppose France’s place in international organizations such as NATO and the European Union.
The 75 percent turnout last Sunday was the lowest since 1969, and the 9 percent of blank ballots was the highest ever. Still, Macron’s vote was equal to 44 percent of registered voters and that’s about average for the winners of France’s 10 presidential elections. He won a larger share than Francois Mitterrand in 1981, Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007, Jacques Chirac in 1995, or Hollande in 2012.
While multiple surveys show business confidence is at its highest level since 2011, Macron inherits an economy that has lagged the euro-area average for the past three years and where the unemployment rate remains stuck at 10 percent, roughly double the level in the U. K. and Germany. And France is still officially under emergency rule after a string of terror attacks since 2015.
What’s more, to implement his policies Macron will need to be able to put together some kind of a majority after the parliamentary elections on June 11 and June 18 in which his year-old political movement is presenting candidates for the first time.
“The unknown part now is how much power are the French voters ready to give him?, ” said Weil. “Will they want him to share power? We should have the answer on June 18 after the legislative elections.”
Macron has already begun naming his aides. Alexis Kohler was appointed as chief of staff and Philippe Etienne, the current French ambassador in Germany, will become the president’s foreign affairs adviser.
