France’s Emmanuel Macron faces a gruelling two-week campaign season and a fight for his political life after coming out on top of the first round of presidential elections on Monday but facing a hostile, sceptical electorate.
To win against far-right challenger Marine Le Pen on 24 April, Mr Macron must stunt her momentum. But more crucially he must convince angry leftists, Muslims and ethnic minorities who voted for Jean-Luc Melenchon to back him after embracing neoliberal economic policies such as raising the retirement age and flirting with right-wing ideas on immigration and intellectual life.
