In the second electoral confrontation, Emmanuel Macron repeated the victory over Marine Le Pen, and renewed the president’s term with more than 58% of the vote, compared to 41.2% achieved by the leader of the National Union.
The wide margin, revealed in the first predictions, threw off the aspirations of the far-right candidate, who tried for the third time to get to the Elysee. Macron, who stormed the French political scene in 2017, at the age of 39, is the first French president to hold onto re-election after Jacques Chirac in 2002. At least four million votes. The abstention rate, the highest since 1962, was 28.2%, up from the 25.4% recorded in 2017.
Emphasis was placed on Champ-de-Mars, in front of the Eiffel Tower, the interaction of thousands of Macron supporters with the first expectations between the flags of France and the European Union, and on the collective intonation and harmony of “Marseilles”.
A resounding victory. This is how Marine Le Pen, in the ward of Arminonville, determined the result achieved on the ballot, a few minutes after the arrival of nearly 42% of the vote (two million more than in 2017), in a significant rise for the party she is. It advances compared to 33.9% occupied five years ago.
“Tonight the French showed their desire for a strong counterforce to Emmanuel Macron,” he shot Le Pen, in a speech of defeat already referring to the June deputies, during which he promised “an opposition that will continue to defend them.” [aos franceses] And protecting them in the face of the erosion of their purchasing power, in the face of assaults on liberties, in the face of lowering the retirement age promised by Macron, in the face of insecurity, chaotic immigration and judicial inaction.”
Summary of the electoral flags repeated for nausea by the candidate during what was described as the campaign of rapprochement.
Siege on the far right
At 9.40 pm, Macron arrived in Champ-de-Mars to address his supporters, in a victory speech in which he begins by referring to the turbulent years of the first term, traversed by the “yellow vests” rebellion and the epidemic, and directed against the youngest French president ever the anger of those who refused to be vaccinated They saw their individual liberties threatened: “After five years of transformation, of happy and hard times, of exceptional crises as well. On this day, April 24, in 2022, most of us have decided to trust me to preside over our republic for the next five years.”
Macron also assumes that many of those who voted for him did so primarily to stem the rise of the far right, which is now more evident. “I also know that many of our compatriots voted for me today [ontem], not to support the ideas I am putting forward, but to prevent the far right. And I want to tell you here that I realize that this covenant binds me for years to come. I am a custodian of your sense of duty and connection to the Republic and respect for the controversies that have been expressed in recent weeks.”
In a short speech away from the euphoria of 2017, the person still in charge of Europe’s second largest economy asserted that he would be the president of all the French people. “From this moment on, I am no longer a candidate for a domain, I am the boss of everyone. I know that for many of our fellow citizens who today [ontem] They choose the far right, the anger and discord that drove them to vote for the far right must find an answer. This is my responsibility.”
