EDITORIAL: France delivers welcome news
Emmanuel Macron’s rise has allayed fears France will become yet another large economy to succumb to right-wing populism
After 2016’s shock Brexit and Donald Trump votes plunged many of us into depression about the state of the world, this week’s shock French vote will surely have done just the opposite. Centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron launched his En Marche! just a year ago and until recently, no one would have thought that the 39-year-old could post a clear win in the first round of France’s complicated presidential election. But Macron took 24% of the vote, ahead of the 21% of second-placed National Front candidate Marine Le Pen, a right-wing populist who is virulently opposed to France’s membership of the EU. With some of the unsuccessful candidates now throwing their weight behind him, Macron seems to be well ahead in the race to the presidency. The latest opinion polls predict he will win 61% in the second round on May 7, with Le Pen at 39%. And at least in France, opinion polling seems to work. Where polls largely failed to predict outcomes in the US and UK in 2016, in France this time the p...
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