PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN FRANCE - Emmanuel Macron re-elected as president with 58.2% of the vote -2
Sylvie Claire / April 25, 2022
French President Emmanuel Macron was re-elected Sunday for a second five-year term against his rival Marine Le Pen, achieving the highest score for the far right in a presidential election since the Fifth Republic began in 1958.
The outgoing head of state obtained between 57.6 and 58.2% according to estimates. The French have thus chosen to re-elect a liberal centrist and very pro-European president against a radical candidate with national priority at the heart of her project, and extremely critical of the European Union. Emmanuel Macron, 44, is the first French president to be re-elected for a second term in 20 years, since Jacques Chirac in 2002 against Marine Le Pen's father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. But this election takes place in a context of record abstention, estimated at 27.8% by Ifop, a rate unseen for a second round since 1969 (31.3%).
The reflex of the republican front or the barrage to the far right, which had worked five years ago, was this time less among a part of the voters hostile to the president and weary of the replay of the duel Macron Le Pen. For comparison, Mr. Macron had in 2017 won 66.10% of the vote, largely ahead of Ms. Le Pen (33.90%). At 53 years old, the latter brings the far right to a record level in France, auguring difficult times for the re-elected president, whose first challenge will be to obtain a majority in the June legislative elections.