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| France's newly elected President: Emmanuel Macron |
With polls now closed across France, centrist Emmanuel Macron
has been elected French President with an estimated 65.5% of the vote,
with his rival, far-right Marine Le Pen, taking 34.5%.
- Macron, 39, has become the youngest president of France's Fifth Republic.France's 47 million
- voters chose between radically different
platforms: the free-trade, pro-EU policies of Macron's
- En Marche!
(Forward!) party, and the protectionist nationalism of Le Pen's National
Front.
- Voting stations opened
at 8am (6am GMT) in mainland France Sunday, and most closed at Frenchj7pm,
while those in larger cities closed at 8pm. Voters overseas began voting
SatOfficial turnout figures have been lower than in the April 23 first
round. The noon turnout was 28.2%, slightly less than the 28.5% in the
first round. At 5pm, the turnout was 65.3%, lower than the 69.4% at the
same time on April 23.
- It has been a historic election by several measures: both candidates
were from parties outside the political mainstream. It follows an
unprecedented campaign marked by scandal and repeated surprises.
- French law prohibited French media from quoting the presidential
candidates or their supporters until the polls closes at 8pm Sunday.
Macron has reportedly told Germany’s
Angela Merkel on the phone that he will soon
travel to Berlin for a face-to-face meeting to get Europe moving again.
Spanish PM
Mariano Rajoy tweets: “Congratulations to
@EmmanuelMacron, France’s new president. France and Spain should work together for a more stable, prosper and united Europe.”
President Trump used Twitter Sunday to extend a hand to France's new president-elect, Emmanuel Macron. 'Congratulations
to Emmanuel Macron on his big win today as the next President of
France. I look very much forward to working with him!' Trump wrote.
The former deputy national security adviser to President Obama
believes the defeat of Marine Le Pen, and victory for Emmanuel Macron,
in the French presidential election shows the end of a wave of
nationalistic populism.
The European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker,
tweeted his congratulations, saying: “Happy that the French have chosen a
European future.
Together for a stronger and fairer Europe.”
J
uncker also sent a letter to Macron only 15 minutes after
the exit poll result was published, in which he told the new French
president that he welcomed “the ideas that you have advocated, a strong
Europe, and progressive, that protects all its citizens”.
A spokesman for the German chancellor Angela Merkel was also
quick to hail the result as a “victory for a strong and united Europe”.
“Congratulations, @EmmanuelMacron. Your victory is a victory for a
strong and united Europe and for French-German friendship,” tweeted
Steffen Seibert in French and German.
Merkel’s chief of staff,
Peter Altmaier,
wrote: “Vive la France, Vive L’Europe!”, adding that it was a “a strong
signal for our common values.” Separately, the German foreign minister
Sigmar Gabriel celebrated Macron’s win for keeping France “at the heart of Europe”.
“Liberté,
Egalité, Fraternité! France chose that today. The great nation was, is,
and remains in the middle and at the heart of Europe,” wrote Gabriel on
Twitter, using France’s national slogan.
European council president
Donald Tusk
also offered his congratulations, saying the French had chosen
“liberty, equality and fraternity” and “said no to the tyranny of fake
news”.
EU-Digest
