This weekend’s election in France has narrowed the field of 11 candidates to two: the most anti-EU candidate, nationalist Marine Le Pen, and the most pro-European candidate, centrist Emmanuel Macron. For the first time in the almost 60-year history of the Fifth Republic, neither the mainstream Left nor the mainstream Right will have a candidate in the second round of the presidential elections. Although Macron is the candidate who promises more continuity with the policies of the previous government than any other, he founded his own political movement only a year ago, and has never previously held an elected office. But although Macron is the strong favorite to win, a look at the broader context shows that his election may only be a temporary reprieve from the nationalistic, anti-EU sentiments that have been rising across Europe.
How a Macron Presidency Could Fuel More Nationalism in France
This weekend’s election in France has narrowed the field of 11 candidates to two – and those two are both the most anti-EU candidate, nationalist Marine Le Pen, and the most pro-European candidate, centrist Emmanuel Macron. The old social-class-based, Left-Right political divide has, temporarily at least, been displaced by one between, on the one hand, a nationalist, economically and culturally closed and authoritarian France, for which Marine Le Pen stands and, on the other, an internationalist, economically and culturally open and liberal France, which the younger, former private banker Macron incarnates. Though Macron is the heavy favorite to win the presidency, it’s also likely that, given his inexperience and lack of allies in Parliament, he will struggle to address France’s domestic problems. If his presidency is perceived as having failed, it will only give Front National and other extreme parties a bigger opening in the 2022 elections.