After his victory in the French presidential elections, Emmanuel Macron is obliged to “expand and unite”

Emmanuel Macron won the presidential election. Surrounded by children and relatives, he appeared last night, with the Eiffel Tower behind him, as the president-elect with 58.5% of the votes in the ballot, responsible for driving the Fifth Republic for another five-year period. However, despite the defeat, this result leaves his rival, Marine Le Pen, with a historic performance from the far right that becomes a friendly option with 41.5% of the support.

Abstention close to 29.5% is the highest since 1969. This is undoubtedly the other significant fact of these elections. It represents the disconnection, the decoupling, of at least part of the French, with current politics. The first challenge for the re-elected government will be to ensure governance, establishing agreements that allow it to overcome visible fragmentation in the country.

Macron, despite the triumph, was attentive to this rift last night. “These are tragic times,” he said on the stage set up on the Champs de Mars in Paris, this time on loan for the celebrations. The president-elect was not referring either to the traces left by the Covid-19 pandemic, nor to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The head of state took note of the social moodiness.

The re-elected is “aware” that many of the French did not vote for his ideas but to “block the far right”. “This vote obliges me,” he said, considering that we will have to “respond” to those who abstained as well as to the “anger and disagreement” expressed by the voters of Marine Le Pen. And “work in unity”.

On the basis of these indications, Emmanuel Macron will have to respond so as not to deepen the divisions even further. In the coming days he will have to appoint a new prime minister as the legislative elections in June are being prepared. Can he be an interim prime minister or one with a projection for a victory in the legislatures?

In that sense, the other winner, outside this contest, someone everyone observes since the results in the first round, is the third of that match: Jean Luc Mélenchon. The leader of La France Insoumise spoke just after the far-right challenger acknowledged that she had been defeated: “The polls have decided, Marine Le Pen is defeated. France has clearly refused to entrust it with its future, and this is very good news for the unity of our people.”

The leader of the popular left further added that “Mr. Macron is the worst elected president of the Fifth Republic. Its presidential monarchy survives by default and under the pressure of a biased election”

Macron, who bears this weakness, warns that he must compose an enlarged majority. Stop leaning to the right, as in the first term. Twist, at least slightly, its course to the left. This almost forced relocation could lay the foundations for it to be able to ensure governance throughout this new five-year period.

“Everything has to be done.” Thus Emmanuel Macron, the day after the re-election, acknowledges to the newspaper La Croix the magnitude of the task ahead. “One victory, a thousand challenges”, also summarizes the Telegram cover. Another title that summarizes the moment, that of the newspaper Le Figaro: “Great victory, great challenges”.

Le Monde evokes, for its part, a “re-election without a state of grace”, in particular because of an “abstention close to records and a far right that for the first time exceeds the bar of 40% of the votes”. Liberation calls for a big “Thank you to whom? on the head of the president, cut at the bottom of the page. “Macron re-elected, victory without glory”, we read in the inner pages of the left-wing newspaper, where the editorialist Paul Quinio lists the files to be dealt with, a mission that results, according to him, “often against the grain of the quinquennium that is coming to an end”.

The president won 58.54% of the vote, according to the count of the Ministry of the Interior. The presidential elections that ended yesterday are the twelfth presidential elections of the French Fifth Republic and the eleventh held by direct universal suffrage, with the aim of electing the President of France to serve a five-year term. It confirms the disinterest of one part of society and the refusal of another to choose between the two finalists. The first stumbling block of the new mandate will be to rebuild a France whose deep divisions have been expressed in these elections.

And now? With this victory the president-elect will have an act of inauguration “reduced to a minimum”. If you take the example of previous reelections, summarized by the Constitutional Council. Emmanuel Macron will have the possibility of appointing his prime minister without even waiting for the ceremony or the proclamation of the results, but he can also decide to wait a few days, depending on the new agreements for governance or the strategy that is already beginning with a view to the women parliamentarians in June.

Once the government is formed, transfers of power will take place in the various ministries. Unsurprisingly, he will then hold office until the legislative elections, scheduled for June 12 and 19, at the end of which the cabinet, as well as the Prime Minister, are likely to be replaced. In the meantime, the Head of State may act by decree or convene the Assembly in extraordinary session.

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