Macron leads a France more divided & extreme than ever
Ramin Mazaheri
Press TV, Paris
With the re-election of President Emmanuel Macron, France’s mainstream media has stopped worrying about fascism and started to honestly discuss the state of the country. A France “divided” is the most common headline.
In 2017, Macron promised to not give France a reason to vote for the extremes of the political spectrum, but the far-right and the far-left have both grown to new highs.
Le Pen won just 5% of the vote in the capital, while out of 101 departments she carried 30 of them, mostly rural. She secured just 1 department in 2017.
80% of voters described the presidential campaign as being of “poor quality”, and few desired a rematch of 2017.
Macron’s problem is that once again he cannot claim his win signifies a broad mandate for his proposals.
Subtract 39% of the total electorate due to abstention and purposely spoiled ballots and Macron’s 58% of the vote falls to just 35% of the electorate. If we fairly assume that, like in 2017, 43% of his voters only did so to block Le Pen, then just 20% of the total electorate chose Macron for his policies or personality. That’s a drop of 4 points from 2017.
If Macron continues to rule as if his policies donot need a broad popular mandate, then France’s permanent social unrest seems likely to continue.
While a Le Pen victory would have set off immediate protests, for now a calm resignation is reigning. However, few expect the French street and rural roundabout to remain calm for long.
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