Paris, France. Completely shocked by Marine Le Pen’s tie vote and near victory over her challenger Macron-a man who has never held elected office and married his high school teacher, France’s establishment media is coming together to stop her victory at all costs.
In the wake of yesterdays French elections anti-EU politicians congratulated Ms Le Pen. Dutch MP Geert Wilders, who leads the anti-immigration Freedom Party, said the results were a “bright day for patriots in France and elsewhere who want more national sovereignty and less EU and immigration”.
France’s defeated mainstream parties now have lined up behind Emmanuel Macron to try to stave off a victory for the far-right’s Marine Le Pen in the final round of the presidential election.
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European Union heavyweights have also backed Mr Macron, the new sudden favorite in establishment opinion polls, despite his never having held public office before. Madame Le Pen quickly turned her fire on her rival, calling him weak in his anti-terrorism policies and desire for more migrants in France.
Vice-president of Ms Le Pen’s National Front, Steeve Briois said he was hoping to win over Mr Mélenchon’s supporters, who he called “outside the system, the voters who voted for Mr Mélenchon are angry voters. They can be in agreement with us,” Mr Briois told reporters in Paris Sunday.
But there were warnings from Mr Macron’s own party following a glitzy victory celebration at a Paris bistro that the job was not yet done. One campaign ends and another begins. The task should be easier for the young pro-European centrist Emmanuel Macron, who’s got endorsements from Merkel and other EU heads dearly afraid a Le Pen victory would spell the end of the EU.
The National Front said that while Mr Macron’s supporters were recovering “from their showbiz evening”, Ms Le Pen was out campaigning in a market at a small northern French town. Le pen made her position clear, “Mr Macron is a weakling. Here we have a candidate who doesn’t have a program to protect the French people from the threat posed by Islamist terrorism. She added: “He is an idiot, radical hard core EU proponent. He is for open borders. Marcon says there is no such thing as French culture.”
This leaves French reporters asking, what does Mr Macron stand for?
At 39, Mr Macron could become the youngest president France has ever had – and the first president in the Fifth Republic who does not belong to a major party.
He secured 8.4 million votes,more than any other candidate in the first round, but just above a tie with Le Pen. He is pro EU, pro corporations and banks. In the US he would be called the establishment candidate of big business.
Mr Macron was Mr Hollande’s economy minister but quit to create En Marche a political party, who has never held office and only real claim to fame, is in marrying his high school teacher. Hollande has become the most despised President in modern French history, for many of the reasons found in Macron’s platform.