Emmanuel Macron has won the French presidential election in a landslide, becoming the youngest president in France's history. Macron, a 39-year-old p
Emmanuel Macron has won the French presidential election in a landslide, becoming the youngest president in France’s history. Macron, a 39-year-old pro-business centrist, defeated Marine Le Pen, a far-right nationalist who called for France to exit the European Union, by a margin of 65.1 % to 34.9%, according to the French Interior Ministry.
His victory served as a relief to European allies who had feared another populist result after Britain’s vote to exit the European Union and Donald Trump’s ascension to US president last year.
“I know the divisions in our nation, which led some to vote for extremist parties. I respect them,” Macron said in a victory speech at his campaign headquarters.
“I will work to recreate the link between Europe and its peoples, between Europe and citizens.”
A former investment banker, Macron served for two years under President François Hollande as Minister of Economy, Industry, and Digital Data, but had never held elected office. He only truly entered the public discourse when he rebelled against Hollande’s socialist party and ran as an independent presidential candidate for his En Marche! (Onwards!) movement. Macron has expressed pro-businesses and pro-EU views. He built a reputation with his ‘Macron Law,’ a controversial reform bill that allowed, among other things, longer retail hours on Sunday.
His rival at the polls, 48-year-old Le Pen has congratulated Marcon and concede the election. Macron will be inaugurated on May 14, when Hollande is expected to step down.
Quite unlike his predecessors, here’s what makes Emmanuel Macron different from France’s previous leaders.
- His age
At 39 years old, Macron will not only become one of the youngest leaders in the world, but also the youngest president of the entire history of the French Republic. Only France’s first President, Napoleon’s nephew, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, was anywhere near Macron’s age when he reached power at the age of 40. As for more recent presidents, Macron is many years younger than Francois Hollande, who came to power at the age of 58, and Nicolas Sarkozy who was elected at 52. The youngest French president in the last half a century, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, was 48 when he won the 1974 election. Macron’s youth became the main target for his opponents throughout the election campaigns. His competitor, Marine Le Pen, is nearly ten years his senior and has played on this by calling him a “baby Hollande” and comparing him to her son having a tantrum. Right wing candidate Nicolas Dupont-Aignan referred to Macron as “Hollande junior.”
But what mattered was that voters were looking for someone young and fresh and they found it in the form of Macron. - His new centrist political movement
Forget the traditional ideas of left and right, Emmanuel Macron decided to go straight down the middle with his party En Marche!, which he only launched in April last year. His aim, he said when launching the party, was to win over a majority of French people to new ideas for the country that could be implemented in the future. Claiming to be of neither the left nor the right, Macron and his party reject the politics of the major parties that have ruled over France for the last decades. Breaking away from many before him, and putting an end to France’s previous habit of alternating from left to right at each election, his policies show elements of both sides of the political spectrum. - His older wife
The 25-year difference in age between Macron and his wife also sets him apart from France’s previous presidents whose previous relationships with younger women have turned heads in France and abroad. Macron’s wife, Brigitte Trogneux, once his drama teacher, has prompted huge interest among the international press, no doubt because of their unusual story and that age gap. Macron’s predecessor François Hollande is currently believed to be in a relationship with actress Julie Gayet, 18 years his junior. The president before him Nicolas Sarkozy, hooked up with singer, model and actress Carla Bruni who is 13 years younger than him. And previous French president, François Mitterand famously had a secret mistress Anne Pingeot, who was only 20 when she got together with the 47-year-old head of state. Will Macron do something else out of the ordinary for French presidents and not get caught having an affair? - He plans to introduce France’s first official First Lady
There’s never been an official First Lady of France, but Macron seems to like the idea of getting his wife involved if he wins on Sunday.
“If I’m elected – no, sorry, when we are elected – she will be there, with a role and place,” Macron told supporters in April before adding that she won’t be paid with public money. - His English language skills
Macron also stands out from the crowd for his fluency in English. To his opponent’s horror, , Macron spoke in English to make a lengthy speech about the future of the EU in January. No big deal, you might think, that a politician would give a speech abroad in slightly accented English. But few French politicians have a good grasp of the language. Many of them, including Le Pen, also liken speaking in English to treason and hatred towards France. Hollande was mocked in 2012 when he wrote to US President Barack Obama to congratulate him on his re-election and signed off with the words, “Friendly, Francois Hollande.” It was an embarrassing mistranslation of the French word ‘amicalement’, used at the end of letters to mean ‘best wishes.’ In 2006, then French president Jacques Chirac famously stormed out of an EU summit in protest at a French businessman who had addressed the room in English.
