The outgoing president has just been reappointed as head of France with 58.2% of the vote against Marine Le Pen. The "republican dam" bends, but does not break, with a far-right candidate q...

Analysis

French presidential election: after his re-election, Emmanuel Macron faces a legislative "third round"

Supporters of Emmanuel Macron in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, this Sunday, April 24, 2022. AP - Rafael Yaghobzadeh

Text by: Léopold Picot Follow

8 mins

The outgoing president has just been reappointed as head of France with 58.2% of the vote against Marine Le Pen.

The "republican dam" bends, but does not break, with a far-right candidate who passes the 40% vote mark for the first time in the history of the Fifth Republic.

The deadlines of the next few months will be crucial for politicians on all sides, as well as for citizens.

This evening of April 24, Emmanuel Macron celebrated his victory on the Champ-de-Mars stage with the Eiffel Tower in the background and the

Ode to Joy

, the European anthem, in the background.

In a ten-minute speech, split into three parts, he tried to address the four political blocs that make up fractured France.

He had promised, on May 4, 2017, in front of the Louvre pyramid, that he would fight against the far right: "

I will do everything during the next five years so that there is no longer any reason to vote for the extremes.

Five years later, the country is even more fractured, the far-right vote is reaching new heights, and the reorganization of the political landscape will force Emmanuel Macron and his opponents to make choices.

A unifying speech

During his speech on the Champ-de-Mars, after thanking his camp, the president spoke to the left bloc, which notably supported Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Yannick Jadot, Fabien Roussel.

It brings together a quarter of the voters, and a large part supported Emmanuel Macron to block the far right: "

I also know that many of our compatriots voted for me today, not to support the ideas that I carry, but to block the extreme right (…) I am the custodian of their sense of duty, their attachment to the Republic, and respect for the differences that have been expressed in recent weeks.

The French president and candidate for his re-election from the La République en Marche (LREM) party, Emmanuel Macron, tried on April 24, 2022 to speak to all the political blocs that make up France, after his victory in the 2022 presidential election. AFP - BERTRAND GUAY

Marine Le Pen, who obtained the best score in the history of her party, is supported by nearly 15 million French people.

Emmanuel Macron addressed these few words to them: “

I think, finally, of those who voted for Madame Le Pen, whose disappointment I know this evening.

“Faced with the whistles of his supporters after this evocation, symbolically, the re-elected president called for calm.

“

No, don't whistle anyone, from the beginning I asked you never to whistle.

“A request answered in the second.

The re-elected president also addressed the fourth block, that of the abstentionists, who represent 13 million French people.

“

I am also thinking of all our compatriots who abstained.
Their silence signified a refusal to choose, which we must also respond to

,” he promised.

In any case, Emmanuel Macron has resumed his formula of five years ago and assures him: “

From now on, I am no longer the candidate of one camp, but the president of all.

For the Head of State, this will be the challenge for the next five years and his governance choices will have to go in this direction if he wants to hope to reduce the French fractures.

Future strategic choices for Macron

A question will therefore arise tomorrow.

Which government will choose Emmanuel Macron to try to bring the French together?

We already know that the Prime Minister for this start of the second five-year term will not be Jean Castex.

If on the move to Figeac, the candidate president declared that his current second would still be there next week, the latter should not be renewed.

He had then assured that he wanted a Prime Minister of ecological planning.

A hand extended to the environmentalist left: strategically, he could, depending on the results of the legislative elections, open the door to a Prime Minister from Europe Ecology the Greens or from the left, to try to rally part of this bloc to him.

If the Republican right resisted the legislative elections,

Making France a great ecological Nation is our project.

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) April 24, 2022

The president will also have to, if he wants to bring the French people together, adapt part of his program.

According to an Ipsos - Sopra Steria survey published on April 24, a majority of French people, 57%, want the President of the Republic to bring the country together, "

even if that means postponing certain important but divisive reforms

They are also pessimistic about the climate that will settle after his re-election.

More than three quarters consider that there will be unrest and tension in the country over the coming months.

The "yellow vests" and the demonstrations against the pension reform are still on everyone's mind.

The left aims to rally its forces

Because Emmanuel Macron clearly does not have a blank check to develop all his reforms.

Even though he was elected with more than 58% of the votes, according to this same study, 56% of French people hope that Emmanuel Macron will lose in the legislative elections, so that cohabitation prevents the elected president from implementing his program.

With this in mind, the disappointed candidates therefore already have their eyes turned towards this election, which will be held on June 12 and 19.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, ten days after his defeat at the gates of the second round, had called on the French to make him their Prime Minister by obtaining a majority of deputies in the Assembly.

On June 12 and 19, another world is always possible with the legislative elections.

You can show it by electing a majority of rebellious MPs and electing me Prime Minister.

#Melenchon3eTour https://t.co/WrQTDbGJhA

— Jean-Luc Melenchon (@JLMelenchon) April 24, 2022

Satisfied with this status as a third political bloc, with tripartism in political life, Jean-Luc Mélenchon mentioned in the wake of the second round the fact that the Popular Union, his movement, intends to become "

the Third Estate which wants to change everything.

“A transformation that will necessarily go through an “

enlarged popular union

”: negotiations with the environmentalists of Yannick Jadot and the communists of Fabien Roussel have already begun.

On the set of France 2 this evening, Julien Denormandie, Minister of Agriculture, also castigated Mathilde Panot, president of the LFI group in the National Assembly, who had just mentioned a defeat of the president in the legislative elections.

“

You see it on your set, since earlier, there are only invectives.
Excuse me, Madame Panot, this evening is not about

"defeating the President of the Republic",

who has just been elected by the people of France, that's not democracy.
Today, you already have this spirit of revenge

The far-right focused on revenge

This spirit of revenge, Marine Le Pen also has it and intends to take advantage of the momentum given by her campaign.

His party, the National Rally (RN), won more than 41% of the vote, an unprecedented success for the far right in France.

The candidate hopes to reverse a trend that has stuck with the skin of the party for years: the RN is struggling to succeed both in other polls and in the presidential election.

In the 2017 legislative elections, her party only managed to elect six deputies, including herself.

Marine Le Pen waves to the crowd during her speech following her defeat in the second round of the presidential election, April 24, 2022. © AP / Francois Mori

Especially since a troublemaker could weaken his own camp, even though Marine Le Pen had taken advantage of his intrusion on the political scene.

Éric Zemmour, Reconquest candidate!

allowed with his controversial remarks to the candidate of the RN to soften his image.

Today, it could weaken it during the legislative elections, by capturing some of the votes intended for the far right.

He held out his hand to her for the legislative elections, but this alliance project was quickly dismissed "

except in special cases

" by Marine le Pen's chief of staff, Renaud Labaye.

Whether for the left or for the extreme right, a cohabitation therefore seems unlikely: this would require a disastrous campaign by the deputies of La République En Marche and an absolute success for only one of the two camps.

Regardless of the legislative elections, the period that opens must be that of unity, because the French, and the Ipsos - Sopra Steria poll proves it, are tired of being divided.

If they hope to be able to govern peacefully one day, opponents and supporters of Emmanuel Macron will have to learn to unite.

►

Find all the results of the second round of the 2022 presidential election by following this link.

French presidential election: after his re-election, Emmanuel Macron faces a legislative "third round"

French presidential election: after his re-election, Emmanuel Macron faces a legislative "third round"

A unifying speech

Future strategic choices for Macron

The left aims to rally its forces

The far-right focused on revenge

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