Paris. Emmanuel Macron, re-elected yesterday for another five years, promised to respond to the discontent of the voters of Marine Le Pen who, despite losing, achieved the best result of the extreme right in a presidential election in France.
Macron beat his rival, 58.8% to 41.2%, with 28% abstaining.
“I’m relieved, as I was very scared,” confesses Jackie Boissard. Macron manages to get her re-elected, but this 60-year-old bank employee warns that she must “take into account all the votes, because there is too much hate in this country.”
As if he had listened to Boissard’s advice, Macron promises in a short speech to be the “president of all” French people and promises to govern with “ambition and benevolence”.
Emmanuel Macron therefore promises a “refounding method” to govern France, ensuring that “no one will fall by the wayside”. “This new era will not be the continuity of the five-year period that is ending,” the outgoing president finally assures during his victory speech on the Champ de Mars.
“I also know that many of our compatriots voted for me today, not to support the ideas I hold but to block the extreme right,” Macron said. Indeed, as the days go by, the number of followers of the radical leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon who voted for Macron will be known.
“I am the president of all,” he said, including those who voted for Le Pen. As whistles began to be heard, Macron asked them not to do so.
About five kilometers away from where Macron was, disappointment invaded the Pavillon d’Armenonville, in the Boulogne forest, when supporters of the far-right Marine Le Pen see Macron’s face appear on television.
“The French don’t understand anything. They will get what they deserve,” grumbles Olivier Mondet after the announcement of his candidate’s defeat. “For five years, (…) we will welcome even more people from everywhere and I am French,” laments this 62-year-old nurse.
protests
After the announcement of the results, a group of young people gathered in Nantes to protest.
“What we are not going to get at the polls, we are going to get in the streets”, could be read on some banners, accompanied by shouts of “Macron is making war on us, and his police too”.
In Paris, concentrations of young people protesting the results could also be seen. Protesters set fire to several garbage cans.