Emmanuel Macron is elected President of France for a second term.
Both Europeans and Ukrainians rejoice at his victory, but Russia was also interested in it.
The second round of the French presidential election ended with a landslide victory for incumbent President Emmanuel Macron.
According to preliminary data, he won a little less than 60% of the votes.
His rival, leader of the far-right National Rally, Marine Le Pen, has already conceded defeat.
Yes, thousands of French people who took to the streets with protests do not agree with the results, but French democracy is not particularly interested in their opinion.
Therefore, the shares received a worthy democratic response - they were tritely dispersed by force.
Nobody will shake the situation.
The street has no leader, and Le Pen herself is completely satisfied with her defeat, which she calls a "historic success" - after all, for the first time she won more than 40% of the vote during the second round.
As a result, an interesting and instructive situation for many "specialists" has developed.
Macron, who at one time was considered an upstart and a dummy, an electoral golem molded in 2017 from various substances and sticks, turned out to be the first president since Jacques Chirac who was able to be re-elected for a second term.
Moreover, despite the decrease in the result compared to the second round of 2017 (then Macron took 66.1% of the vote), this time his victory was more predictable.
The fact is that Emmanuel Macron was to some extent doomed to this victory.
The downward trend in the ratings of European traditional parties (incapable of meeting the aspirations of the electorate) led to the fact that the French center-right and center-left found themselves in the first round at the most electoral day: the right-wing Republican candidate Valerie Pecresse took only 4.78% (in four times less than the mainstream right-wing candidate in the 2017 election), while the Socialists generally had less than 2%.
As a result, it turned out that the first three places were taken by the populist Macron, the right-wing radical Marine Le Pen and the left-wing radical Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
This means that, no matter with whom from the last two, Macron enters the second round, he could collect protest votes against his opponent - both centrists and radicals from the opposite camp.
Actually,
in the battle against Le Pen, the current president managed to win over left-wing anti-fascists from among Mélenchon's supporters (by promising them a number of social benefits) and comfortably beat his competitor.
Yes, Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon sincerely hope to take revenge in the June parliamentary elections (their parties now have six and 17 seats, respectively, out of 577 in the lower house), but this will not change much.
France is not a parliamentary but a presidential republic.
And for the French, the populist turned out to be a more acceptable candidate than any radical, left or right.
Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon sincerely hope to get revenge in the June parliamentary elections (their parties now have six and 17 seats, respectively, out of 577 in the lower house), but this will change little.
France is not a parliamentary but a presidential republic.
And for the French, the populist turned out to be a more acceptable candidate than any radical, left or right.
Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon sincerely hope to get revenge in the June parliamentary elections (their parties now have six and 17 seats, respectively, out of 577 in the lower house), but this will change little.
France is not a parliamentary but a presidential republic.
And for the French, the populist turned out to be a more acceptable candidate than any radical, left or right.
In fact, European countries are of the same opinion - they all celebrate Macron's victory.
“Citizens have chosen a France committed to a free, strong and just EU.
Democracy won, Europe won,” said Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
Olaf Scholz is also pleased, who, on the eve of the second round, in a column written with Pedro Sanchez and Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa for the leading French publication Le Monde, stated that “the French will choose between a candidate from a democratic party who believes that France is stronger in a powerful and an autonomous European Union, and a far-right candidate who openly sides with those who attack our freedom and our democracy.”
“Great news for Europe” and the EU, “which has become a protagonist in the greatest challenges of our time,” was how Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi reacted to Macron’s victory.
And the reaction is understandable: As CNN notes, “a Le Pen victory would fundamentally change France’s relationship with the European Union and the West at a time when the bloc and its allies rely on Paris’s leadership to face the world’s greatest challenges, above all the war in Ukraine.”
Indeed, there are two key words in the EU and NATO now - "unity" and "leadership".
Unity on the issue of collective opposition to Russia to the last Ukrainian (because the defeat of the collective West in Ukraine can lead to the most tragic consequences for the EU - the growth of Eastern European nationalism, American isolationism, the rejection of European expansionism in the post-Soviet space and - the worst thing for European elites - the discrediting of European neoliberal values).
And, of course, there is a great need for the leader of this noble cause, because German Chancellor Olaf Scholz does not take out this role.
No, he is honestly trying to lead the anti-Russian camp (and remilitarize Germany under the guise), but the interests of the German economy, which literally cannot live without Russian hydrocarbons, stand in the way of his ambitions.
Under Le Pen, there would be neither unity nor leadership, because she announced the withdrawal of France from NATO and the reformatting of the European Union (apparently, from an integration project into a kind of interest club - the desired form of the EU for all European nationalists who dream of the full restoration of national sovereignty member countries).
Macron, with his ambitions and the level of party discipline among the liberal-globalist elite of the West, fully corresponds to these aspirations.
Moreover, he has exorbitant ambitions, sincerely wants to play the role of the leader of Europe - or, in extreme cases, its manager under the American master (as noted above, Macron does not violate party discipline).
However, on the other hand, Macron's victory did not become a big problem for Russia either.
Firstly, Emmanuel Macron (unlike a number of other leaders) is not going to break off relations with Moscow and emphasizes in every possible way that he is ready to continue the dialogue with Vladimir Putin at any moment.
In this regard, Macron is more far-sighted than his colleagues - he understands that after the defeat of the Ukrainian regime, Europe needs a mediator in order to conduct a dialogue with Putin on the new rules of the game.
And for Brussels, it is better for Macron to be this intermediary than Viktor Orban, so European officials allow the French president to speak from moderate positions.
Secondly, Le Pen's victory would cause a chain reaction in the EU, would initiate a serious internal crisis, fraught with, if not collapse, then at least disintegration of the organization.
Yes, someone in Russia likes such prospects - after all, today a united Europe is pursuing a hostile policy, and the worse it is, the better for us.
However, we need to look a little further.
Russia benefits from a united, subjective, sober Europe after the Ukrainian slap in the face, with which it will be possible to talk.
And the nationalist Eastern Europe, which has broken loose from the Western European leash, is certainly unprofitable, which will finally and irrevocably go under the control of Washington.
Macron, on the other hand, will continue the course towards a united Europe playing by common rules - or, more precisely, will try to do so.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.