France’s president-elect made his name in the global arena, and has a diplomatic bent. Revitalising French foreign policy may well be among his early successes.
Macron’s win showed France is internationalist, outward looking, pro-EU and free market-oriented; Le Pen’s rise revealed that it’s also nationalist, protectionist, anti-EU and suspicious of outsiders.
France’s new president is just 39-years-old and started his own political movement barely a year ago. So how did he do it?
As a French specificity, blank vote is counted but not recognised, despite a steady increase of its usage in many elections in the country.
Eric Gaillard/Reuters
Never before in French presidential elections have commentators and pundits expressed alarming concern about the size of the blank voting.
Activists wear masks of Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the National Front, with his daughter’s hair, Marine, currently the extreme-right candidate in France’s election.
Gonzalo Fuentes /Reuters
French voters should understand what it means to live in a country where autocratic populism is the rule.
In a heated presidential debate, Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron argued over each other like a pair of bickering teenagers as their parents watched on, confused.
Reuters
The French must choose between two visions – one from Macron that looks externally to EU partners in trade and security, or one from Le Pen that closes France’s borders and yearns for a ‘Frexit’.
Macron at a rally in Chatellerault, France, April 28, 2017.
Regis Duvignau/Reuters
It might look like an odd move, but quitting your party in the middle of a presidential election plays into a particular myth that might appeal to voters.
The first round of France’s 2017 presidential contest sent two political outsiders to the second round. What’s next in this key European election?
Emmanuel Foudrot/Reuters
France must now choose between two candidates with strongly opposing visions. The outcome of the May 7 run-off could radically alter France, as well as its position in Europe and in the world.
French voters go to the polls for the first round of election on April 23.
Ian Langsdon/EPA
Behind the judicial turmoils of some of the candidates, it is becoming increasingly clear that the French presidential campaign is about two significantly opposed visions of the future.
Frontrunner for the first round: Marine Le Pen.
Mathieu Cugnot/EPA