Emmanuel Macron wins, great news for Europe, but let’s be aware that the campaign has saved us. Five years ago the contenders were the same and then Marine Le Pen had the confidence of one in three voters, the other two opted for Macron; In this new appointment, on the other hand, despite the fact that they have voted much less, the margin has narrowed and radical populism has been closer to achieving the confidence of half of the voters. the radical right is no longer perceived as a risk or an anachronism of the past, to become a real option for the future. And that does not only refer to France, its effect, as happened with the arrival of Trump in the White House, is irrevocably spreading throughout Europe. Let’s take note.
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With the results in hand, in a presidential regime like the French, Macron will be able to govern, but it is going to have to modulate its way of exercising power. There is much to read in these elections, and not only in France. The useful vote may have worked at the last minute, but during this final phase of the campaign it has seemed that the president had only his voters. From left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon has played with ambiguity. From the right, a part of the voters has taken to the mountain of the most radical option. Curious, because Le Pen’s party is ultraconservative, but it is not liberal. One and the other are very similar and make reality the idea that is so popular that extremes usually have meeting points. Mélenchon and Le Pen agree on the skepticism in the European Union, where for different reasons both defend that the shared sovereignty It is more of a resignation than an opportunity. Logical when both are presented with a recurring idea of protectionism. What for the populist left is justified by class protection, for the ultraconservatives protectionism is racial. A polar scenario that questions from both sides the common progress of the European project and that is already preparing the next legislative elections that in two months will decide the representatives in the French Parliament, with the threat of leaving the party of the new President Macron in a minority.
But for now it’s time to celebrate a victory that continues along the path of building a common space of progress in Europe; of unwavering support for a country like Ukraine, brutally occupied and massacred, or of the need to continue advancing in the construction of the common project, including new taxation. The main European chancelleries were waiting for Macron and, although they did not make it so explicit, they feared that a victory for Le Pen, together with that of Viktor Orbán in Hungary, would be the beginning of a european withdrawal precisely at the time when the Union is most needed. In a period where polarization is contagious and no country is exempt from experiencing its worst consequences, Macron’s victory is great news for France, and also for us.