The calculation fell right.

By winning his duel against Marine Le Pen with 58.8% of the vote, against 41.2% for the far-right candidate, Emmanuel Macron became, on Sunday April 24, the first president of the Fifth Republic to be re-elected since Jacques Chirac in 2002. But with an abstention of 28.2% and a cumulative figure of abstention, blank votes and invalid votes estimated at 34.7%, according to our partner Ipsos Sopra-Steria, Emmanuel Macron is also a president who will have to face an even more pronounced legitimacy trial than in 2017.

Twenty years after the first accession of the far right to the second round of the presidential election and the 82.21% obtained by Jacques Chirac against Jean-Marie Le Pen thanks to the "republican front", Emmanuel Macron is therefore re-elected in 2022 with "only" 58.8% of the vote.

The sign of a weariness of voters to have to block an extreme right which continues to progress in France.

Emmanuel Macron, who will not be able to stand for re-election in 2027 under the terms of the Constitution which prohibits serving more than two consecutive terms, has understood this well.

"I also know that many of our compatriots voted for me today, not to support the ideas I hold, but to block those of the extreme right. And I want to thank them here and tell them that I I am aware that this vote obliges me for the years to come. I am the custodian of their sense of duty, of their attachment to the Republic and of respect for the differences which have been expressed in recent weeks", he declared on Sunday evening in front of his supporters gathered on the Champ-de-Mars in Paris.

“I am also thinking of all our compatriots who abstained. Their silence signified a refusal to choose which we will also have to respond to, he continued. Finally, I am thinking of those who voted for Ms. Le Pen, including I know the disappointment tonight. (…) The anger and disagreements that led them to vote for this project must also find an answer. It will be my responsibility and that of those around me", assured the head of the State, while promising that "from now on", he was "no longer the candidate of one camp, but the president of all".

Marine Le Pen as the only opponent

A speech reminiscent of that of his first victory, on May 7, 2017, when he declared about the voters of Marine Le Pen that he would do “everything so that they no longer have any reason to vote for the extremes”.

Five years later, the promise has not been kept: in the end, more than 4 million additional voters have chosen to put a Marine Le Pen ballot in the ballot box.

It must be said that by replacing the left-right divide with that opposing the "progressives" to the "nationalists", the President of the Republic has made Marine Le Pen his main opponent, making, according to his opponents on the left and on the right, the calculation that a second round against the extreme right would ensure his re-election thanks to the famous republican front.

Thus, Emmanuel Macron has regularly occupied the field and themes dear to the far right, regularly bringing the national debate back, as in the months following the Yellow Vests crisis, to issues related to immigration, Islam or Security.

On the evening of his re-election, Emmanuel Macron approaches his second mandate in a very different context from that of 2017. The freshness of the youth and the novelty that had carried him five years ago and which had enabled him to obtain the absolute majority in the legislative elections that followed, has disappeared.

And nothing says that he will manage to regain control of the National Assembly this time.

In a France now divided into three blocs – the liberal bloc of Emmanuel Macron, the nationalist bloc of Marine Le Pen and the radical left bloc of Jean-Luc Mélenchon – 56% of French people want the legislative elections of June 12 and 19 lead to cohabitation, according to a survey by our partner Ipsos/Sopra-Steria.

"The third round starts tonight"

The political opponents of the President of the Republic also have this meeting in their sights.

Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon hastened, a few minutes after the announcement of the results, to turn to what they call the "third round" of the presidential election.

"The game is not quite played," launched Marine Le Pen in front of his supporters.

"Tonight we are launching the great electoral battle of the legislative elections, I will lead this battle (...) with all those who had the courage to oppose Emmanuel Macron in the second round", stressing that "the historic score of this evening places our camp in excellent condition to obtain a large number of deputies next June".

"My thoughts turn to the future victims of this situation, the worn-out people who will retire three years later, the people who are financially strapped and who will not see prices being blocked, the people who know how Mr. Macron's ecological inaction is a crime", listed Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

"Don't resign yourself," he told them.

"Go into action frankly, massively, democracy can give us the means to change course again. The third round begins tonight."

To contain anger and discontent, Emmanuel Macron promised a "new era" which "will not be the continuity of the five-year term which is ending, but the collective invention of a refounded method".

The Head of State now has seven weeks before the legislative elections to convince.

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