Battered and bruised, France’s “republican front” did its job once more in Sunday’s presidential election runoff. Faced with the prospect of a far-right takeover of the Élysée, a sufficient number of voters put aside their reservations regarding Emmanuel Macron and made him the first president to win a second term in office for 20 years. In the end, Mr Macron’s 58%-42% victory over Marine Le Pen was much more comfortable than seemed likely a few weeks ago, when some polls predicted a knife-edge contest.
For France – and the rest of Europe – the alternative outcome would have been disastrous and destabilising. Ms Le Pen’s authoritarian, nationalist and xenophobic vision would have led to civil strife domestically and undermined solidarity between western democracies at a vital time. That Mr Macron successfully averted this worst-case scenario is a cause for celebration. But as his victory speech on Sunday night tacitly acknowledged, an election won with the help of the fear factor has delivered an exceptionally fragile mandate. Describing France as riven by doubt and division, Mr Macron pledged to be “not the candidate of one camp, but the president of all of us”. Such assurances are commonplace from victorious political leaders, but it is vital that Mr Macron makes good on them during a second term, which looks challenging to say the least.
