French Elect Emmanuel Macron as its New President
(Worthy News) – Three years ago, hardly anyone knew his name. But in a once-unimaginable scenario, Emmanuel Macron — at 39, the boy wonder of an aging political establishment — won the French presidency Sunday with a tidal wave of popular support. He will soon be France’s youngest head of state since Napoleon Bonaparte as well as its first modern president who does not belong to either of the center-left or center-right parties that have run this country for 60 years.
After the Brexit campaign’s success in Britain and Donald Trump’s upset victory in the U.S. presidential election, Macron’s triumph was billed as having slowed the global tide of anti-establishment populism. In the vote’s second and final round, he defeated Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Front, an anti-immigrant party tainted by the perception that it is tolerant of anti-Semitism and Nazi nostalgia.
Macron, who has never held elected office, has now been elected to one of the most powerful executive positions in the Western world and will be the leader of Europe’s second-largest economy. He did it, analysts say, through a combination of luck and a campaign message attuned to a new political moment. [ Source ]
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