A Commentary by Britta Sandberg
Emmanuel Macron has won the second round of voting against radical right-wing candidate Marine Le Pen. But a far more difficult task lies ahead: His second term.
https://www.spiegel.de-Emmanuel Macron secured a second term on Sunday, but he has his work cut out for him.
Foto: Jean Catuffe / Getty Images
It could have been a triumph. Emmanuel Macron on Sunday managed to become the first president in decades to get elected to a second term, with the exception of elections during a political cohabitation. He expanded his lead over Marine Le Pen from four percentage points in the first round of voting two weeks ago to 17 percentage points. He thus saved France and Europe from a far-right president. And he managed to do so despite the fact that so many French people supposedly hate him. Despite the fact that, according to one survey, only 22 percent of the French are convinced that Macron understands their concerns, their daily lives – in contrast to his opponent Le Pen, whom they trust much more.
But there was no sense of triumph in these post-election hours – relief seems to be the overall sentiment, not enchantment. It is an election in which the work began immediately after the announcement of the result (58.5 percent for Macron, 41.5 for Le Pen).
“Twenty-eight percent of French people, almost a third, simply didn’t go to the polls, because they could not identify with what Le Pen or Macron offered politically.”
Macron must now work to unite his country, which is deeply divided five years after his first victory in May 2017. The country is split into three political blocs. In addition to the ruling party in the center, there is a strong party on both the far right (Le Pen’s right-wing radical Rassemblement National) and the far left (Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s radical left party La France Insoumise).
And then there’s the fourth block. Twenty-eight percent of French voters, almost a third, simply didn’t bother to cast a ballot because they could not identify with what Le Pen or Macron offered politically. Nine percent of voters cast a “vote blanc,” a deliberately invalidated ballot. For the past several years, the “vote blank” has been regarded as an ostentatious protest ballot. The 28 percent abstentions plus nine percent protest voters add up to 37 percent. In purely numerical terms, and compared with the results of the first ballot, that would be France’s strongest party: People who no longer believe in the meaning of democratic competition. A party of non-voters and protest voters.
Quite a Few People Who Don’t Like Macron
They are joined by 22 percent who are staunch left-wing Mélenchon voters and the 24 percent who supported Le Pen. That all adds up to quite a few people who don’t like Macron. On Sunday night, protests and violent riots broke out in France.
Macron, whose second term must begin no later than May 14 according to law, showed on election night that he is perfectly aware of the situation facing his country. “Starting today, I will no longer be the candidate of one camp, but the candidate of all French” he said. Then, an Egyptian mezzo-soprano sang the French national anthem. Earlier, he had walked onto the stage together with the children of his campaign staff and hand-in-hand wife his wife Brigitte. No gesture on this evening was meaningless: The president’s victory was not his alone, and an Arab woman can also sing the Marseillaise.
At some point during the evening, the information emerged that Macron was not really celebrating his election victory, but had instead retreated to the presidential weekend residence, La Laterne, a former hunting pavilion in Versailles. It’s a place one goes either to rest or to think. Or to do both.
The president must now turn Macron I into the new Macron II. His every act in office will be measured against the promise he made on Sunday evening: That he would be the president of all French men and women. So far, it is an aspiration he has had a hard time living up to. He was seen as the president of the rich, of the winners, of those who need not fear that they won’t have enough money to last them through the month. At some point during this election campaign, Le Pen managed to slip into the role of champion for the everyday people. “Excuse me for interrupting, but I must interject with the voice of the people,” she said during her final TV debate against Macron four days ago.
Macron Won’t Have to Think about Re-Election
Macron has announced a new kind of governance. He says he wants more citizen involvement in projects and in planned reforms such as those involving schools and healthcare. He will also have to reform the political system and introduce at least a modicum of proportional representation so that the French no longer feel that their votes won’t change anything. He will have to name a prime minister who will broaden the political spectrum and perhaps even come from a different party, but must at the very least stand for a new beginning. The same applies to members of his government. He will have to do something to satisfy the many left-wing Mélenchon voters, 42 percent of whom voted for him (with only 17 percent voting for his rival Le Pen).
“Whether Macron can succeed in uniting a fractious France will depend on this term.”
The president who enchanted the country five years ago with the promise of political renewal must now prove to the French that he has understood their vote and takes it seriously. He is still young and this is his last term. Under the French constitution, he is not permitted to run for a third term. The fact that he doesn’t have to consider re-election could also be seen as an opportunity.
Whether Macron can succeed in uniting a fractious France will depend on this term. And whether political alternatives beyond the extremes will emerge. Or whether it will be Macron who paves the way to power for the right-wing populists over the next five years. In short, whether he can be a president who will make history. And that is indeed something that he surely wants to be.