Congratulations to the French President elect
In his victory
speech, Emmanuel Macron has vowed to unite a divided and fractured France saying the world was watching and “waiting for us to defend the spirit of the Enlightenment, threatened in so many places”
As the creed of radical populism was fast sweeping across the Western world - it was the people of France to have struck a decisive blow against its spread by rejecting it by a landslide margin, the day before yesterday.
Yes, Emmanuel Macron has swept Marine Le Pen far aside to become Frances next president. Macron won by an even wider margin than the polls had consistently predicted - 65.1 per cent to 35.9 per cent - nearly double. It is the decisive majority against Le Pens far-right challenge that France desperately needed while making the Saturdays elections as one of the biggest presidential wins in the history of the Fifth Republic.
However, with such a massive win, the peoples expectations have sky rocketed too. The challenges for the new president are enormous, both at home and abroad; ranging from economy, unemployment, and immigration and foreign policies to internal security and following many more. Macron had been elected the president at a watershed moment where he will have to demonstrate even harder to prove that his tough liberalism can be an effective sell in parliamentary elections. Most importantly, he has barely five weeks before the first round of elections which also can potentially make him the presidential prisoner of a hostile National Assembly in a cohabitation that France can ill afford.
That said - his key challenge will be to translate campaigning into his promised good governance and slogans into practical well timed actions. Not to forget that he is about to lead a nation in trouble, whose people apparently are often more anxious and angry than confident and trustful.
We expect him to make innovative centrist government efficiently function on a continent where many have despaired of it. Furthermore Macrons political future also seriously depends on living up to his promises.
Once again the people of France have inflicted a major reverse on demagogic nationalism which must continue onwards. We salute them for their bold, courageous and secular outlook. We salute them for not acting in tuned with ultra-aggressive nationalistic outlook. Last but not least, we salute them for upholding the spirits of the very core of French values the values of an indivisible, secular, democratic, and social Republic. Vive la France.
