Emmanuel Macron on Sunday was elected to become the youngest president in the history of the French Republic and the country’s youngest leader since Napoleon despite tens of thousands of documents from his campaign leaking days before and a nationalistic surge in his country.
Macron won about 65 percent of the vote, according to initial estimates, and his competitor — National Front leader Marine Le Pen — called him to congratulate him on his victory minutes after the polls closed. Official results are expected to be available later on Sunday.
A political independent who formed his own movement outside France’s traditional party structure, the 39-year-old Macron is now tasked with convincing the French that a former investment banker can calm Gallic economic worries and fight off terrorism and growing concern over Islamic extremism inside his country’s borders. On Sunday, he sounded ready for the fight.
“My responsibility will be to allay fears, to make sure that we become more optimistic,” he said. “To find again the spirit of conquest which determines France more than anything.”
But, it won’t be easy. Le Pen represented a growing segment of French society that is fearful — fearful of Muslim refugees who have come to the country in recent years, fearful of losing traditional working class jobs and fearful of the French identity being diluted.
While many centrists and Democrats in the United States cheered Le Pen’s defeat, she gained a larger share of the vote than any past National Front presidential candidate. Though defeated, Le Pen’s movement is considered to still be growing and she promised to put up a fight against “neoliberal” policies in the coming years.
“We have seen a major decomposition of French political life of the old traditional mainstream parties,” Le Pen said, “and what we see now is a new real configuration, a rift between the patriots and the neoliberals and this is what we’re going to fight at the legislative elections.”
Stateside, the French election was immediately viewed through an American lens.
Former Obama deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said Macron’s win, along with the rejection of far-right wing parties in Austria and Holland, showed the nationalistic populism wave is over. Liberal American politicians, like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ted Lieu, praised the French vote as a rebuke of Trumpism abroad.
“Today France chose Liberty, Equality & Fraternity over Discrimination, Bigotry & a Stupid Wall,” Lieu tweeted.
Democrats spent much of the weekend criticizing the American media for reporting on leaked information from Hillary Clinton’s campaign during the end of the 2016 election, contrasting that practice to a French media blackout on what was in the leaked Macron documents. Clinton herself shamed the media while congratulating Macron on his victory.
Those emails and campaign documents may have played a bigger role in Sunday’s vote if not for the country’s law requiring a blackout on any news that could impact the election for 44 hours. The blackout began at midnight Saturday and ended when polls closed on Sunday, and the French government warned reporting or spreading the documents in the Macron leak could be a criminal offense.
By backing Macron and ignoring the leak, the French people respected the values of the French Revolution, said Donald Tusk, president of the European Council.
“Congratulations @EmmanuelMacron. Congratulations to French people for choosing Liberty, Equality and Fraternity over tyranny of fake news,” he tweeted.
Many backers of the European Union breathed a heavy sigh of relief at news of Macron’s victory.
Peter Altmaier, chief of staff to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said it was a win for the shared values of the European powers.
“Vive la France! Vive L’Europe, a strong signal for our common values and Franco-German! Congratulations to Emmanuel Macron!,” he tweeted.
Gerard Araud, the French ambassador to the U.S., said it’s clear the French people did not want to take the same path as the British when it came to their European future.
“By electing Emmanuel Macron as their next president, the French have made the choice of an open, forward looking and European future,” he tweeted.
The world’s leaders welcomed Macron into their community, with British Prime Minister Theresa May and President Trump both sending their congratulations. Francois Hollande, the incumbent French president, echoed their sentiments with his own best wishes.
While the mood abroad was joyful, Macron’s speech seemed to reflect a more serious and somber moment.
He didn’t speak to a large gathering of supporters outside the glass pyramid at the Louvre directly, instead appearing by video for his initial acceptance speech. While his campaign may have been modeled on the “hope and change” ethics of Barack Obama’s 2008 run, the victory speech had none of the exuberant joy that marked Obama’s appearance in Grant Park after his win.
Instead, Macron’s tone seemed to indicate he knows he faces a great task to give the French people “a new vigor.”
“I understand the anger, the anxiety, the doubt which many of you have and it’s my responsibility to hear that,” he said. “Behind every single word that I have spoken, I know that there are the faces of men, women and children, whole families … it is you tonight who I am addressing.”
