The French Election
On Sunday, May 7th, France elected its new president after François Hollande. Hollande, member of the Socialist Party who has served as France’s president since 2012, decided to not run for reelection due to poor approval ratings. In late April, after yet another round of voting in the extensive process of election, the select five candidates, who represented five French political parties, were narrowed down to two: Marine Le Pen of the Front Nationale, and Emmanuel Macron of the french independent party known as En Marche! On Sunday, Macron won the election by a landslide, earning approximately 66% of votes in France, and nearly 90% of votes abroad.
This election was, similarly to the United States’ 2016 election, quite unprecedented and split the nation down the middle. Marine Le Pen is a very controversial figure; she is extremely right-winged, nationalistic, and supports France “renegotiating” its current place in the European Union, banning religious symbols (such as Muslim veils) in public, and drastically cutting legal immigration as well as expulsing all illegal immigrants. Because these issues caused such a great deal of controversy within France, many non-extreme-right-wing voters chose to vote for Macron, simply to keep Le Pen out of the presidency. Macron, who is set to be France’s youngest president ever at the age of 39, is not quite on the left or right side of the political spectrum, which is how he managed to secure so many votes from various political parties. Conversely to Le Pen, Macron wishes to strengthen France’s ties to the European Union, invest in job-training and renewable energy, and unify France’s current pension system. Macron was endorsed by many highly esteemed French and international politicians, including Barack Obama.
Although Macron did win the election by a significant amount of votes, many are still shocked at the fact that Marine Le Pen was able to make it so far in the election, considering her extreme right-winged views. This election was eye-opening to people worldwide, as it showcased just how divided our world is today on controversial topics like immigration and religion.
