French Election: Macron Beats Le Pen to Win 2nd Term as France's President

Emmanuel Macron defeated far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the French presidential election on a pro-business, pro-European Union platform, bolstering the bloc in the midst of its worst security crisis in decades.

“Vive la République et vive la France” or "Long live the Republic and long live France," said Macron during his victory speech from the grounds adjacent to the Eiffel Tower, le Champs de Mars in Paris.

With counting still under way, projections by France’s five main pollsters put Macron on course to win about 58% of the vote in Sunday’s runoff compared with 42% for Le Pen. The euro rose after the nationalist leader conceded defeat in a speech to her supporters in Paris.

The 44-year-old Macron becomes the first incumbent to win a second term since Jacques Chirac two decades ago. With campaigning shaped by the war in Ukraine, his pledge to make France a cornerstone of a stronger, more integrated EU won out over the nativism and protectionism championed by Le Pen.

The outcome is good news for investors who had predicted that a Le Pen victory would deliver a shock to markets on the scale of the U.K.’s vote to leave the EU or the election of Donald Trump in the U.S. The euro opened up 0.5% against the dollar to 1.0844 in early Sydney trading.

Yet the margin of victory is far narrower than last time, when Macron beat Le Pen by more than 30 points. The rise in support for her nationalist program reflects a bitterly divided country. Macron sought to reach out to his opponents in his victory speech, urging his supporters not to boo his rival.

“I am no longer the candidate for one side, I am the president for everyone,” he said at the rally in Paris. He acknowledged that many people had voted for him simply to stop the advance of the far-right, rather than because they backed his ideas.

“The result in itself represents a stunning victory,” Le Pen said, before leading her supporters in a chorus of the national anthem. “Millions of people voted for the national camp and for change.”

With the traditional parties of the left and right in disarray, 53-year-old Le Pen was the main beneficiary, along with far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon who narrowly missed qualifying for the runoff vote. On Friday, the last day of campaigning, Macron pledged to do more to address the grievances of poorer voters to reverse the steady increase in support for Le Pen.

France’s European allies will also be relieved by the result.

German, Spanish and Portuguese leaders took the unusual step of wading into the domestic affairs of another country by calling on French voters not to support her in a joint column published in several newspapers on April 21. They described her as the candidate “who openly sides with those who attack our freedom and democracy.”

When Macron became the youngest-ever elected French head of state in 2017, he was seen as a breath of fresh air and a bulwark against the rising tide of illiberal populism. But admiration turned to resentment. The former investment banker educated at France’s most elite institutions struggled to connect with less well-off voters. He earned a reputation for aloofness and arrogance, and became known as “president of the rich.”

Le Pen’s focus on pocketbook issues did resonate with many voters. As she crisscrossed France on the campaign trail, she cast herself as a sort of modern day Robin Hood at the service of people struggling with energy and food prices driven higher by the Ukraine crisis. The gap to Macron was as little as two percentage points around the time of the first round on April 10. But that was not enough once Macron turned his full attention from the war to the election.

To be sure, Macron did win approval for his handling of the pandemic. The French economy is recovering faster than major European peers and he has so far shielded families and businesses from the worst of the inflation shock.

But Macron himself has acknowledged that he failed to fully deliver on his bold early promises and has tried to strike a more humble tone.

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