Bonne chance, Monsieur Macron

Macron enters the history books as the youngest leader of France since Napolean Bonaparte. He joins the ranks of youthful politicians such as Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Belgium’s Prime Minister Charles Michel. Many are hoping Sunday’s victory is the start of a reignited movement in favour of a more liberal world. Days after his victory, Moon Jae-in, a left-leaning liberal, won South Korea’s presidential election. But it is fanciful to believe that the ugliness which has reared its head in global politics – as represented by the rise of Donald Trump and Brexit – will simply disappear with these electoral victories.

For instance in France, Macron will not be able to ignore the fact that almost 34 per cent of the voters chose Marine Le Pen, a leader whose party and policies are openly anti-European, anti-immigrant, and racist. Far from going quietly into the gentle night, Le Pen has pledged a “profound transformation” of her party and could still remain a force to contend with come 2022.

While Macron’s victory was the most decisive since Jacques Chirac’s in 2002, it cannot be forgotten that about 25 per cent of French voters stayed away. Macron’s youth belies the fact that he is far from a newcomer to politics. He served in the administration of Francois Hollande. Though he may like to describe himself as such, he is also hardly an outsider, being a graduate of the ?cole Nationale d’Administration and a Rothschild alumnus.

His youth may afford him certain advantages, prime among them an ability to understand the world in today’s terms. His background in finance (he was once dubbed “the Mozart of finance”) may also give him a unique perspective when it comes to tackling France’s unemployment rate and its stagnant economic growth. Still, many question whether he will be able to succeed in economic rejuvenation where many a French president has failed.

But history will perhaps view the French election result as less of a referendum on Monsieur Macron’s qualities and more of an instance of tactical voting given the threat presented by Le Pen. Le Pen was openly cosy with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and on the eve of the election Macron had to fend off a massive email leak of party communications which has been linked to murky Russian cyber groups which were also fingered in the hack of a US political party last year.

The difference this time around is that Macron’s team appeared ready for the intervention, planting fake emails in anticipation of such a tactic. Notably, the French media also declined to carry much of the materials given the close proximity to the blackout period in which, under French law, no campaigning is allowed. Macron’s victory was also certainly aided by the fact that France uses a run-off system in voting in its leaders. This system allows citizens to make a more precise intervention when the time comes to say who they would like to government them, contrasting sharply with the first-past-the-post system of the UK and this country.

Macron’s victory makes things harder for the UK and, perhaps, his British counterpart Theresa May who is seeking a mandate to implement “Brexit means Brexit.” Will she face a tide of tactical voting? If she is victorious, as the polls currently suggest she will be, her negotiations with the European Union may be tougher. For now we wish Macron best of luck. Or as the French would say, bonne chance!