John Keiger John Keiger

France is eternally divided

There are, and always have been, three warring tribes

A lot happened in France last night. After a lacklustre performance, long disillusioned supporters were unable to summon any enthusiasm for Paris Saint Germain football team’s French league championship success. Emmanuel Macron was re-elected French President beating Marine Le Pen 58.5 to 41.5 per cent and the official disco party celebration organised beneath the Eiffel Tower finished early. A short distance away on the Pont Neuf police shot and killed two men who drove a car at them. Demonstrators took to the streets and threw fireworks in protest against Macron’s election in Paris, Lyon, Strasbourg, Rennes, Grenoble and a host of other French towns where teargas scuffles took place.

Emmanuel Macron made the shortest victory speech of his career. A far cry from the pomp and grandiloquence of 2017. He all but apologised for so many voters having cast a ballot to block his rival rather than for him. He promised to do better. Yet the great impresario of historical symbolism then set off in his motorcade for La Lanterne, the Chateau de Versailles’ former royal hunting lodge, now a grace and favour residence, to celebrate with his family. A prominent Mélenchon party leader was aghast at the symbolism.

At the heart of all this is a France divided into three blocs

Abstentionism was the highest since 1969 and combined with blank and spoilt ballots accounts for 35 per cent of the electorate. The radical left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, with his 22 per cent in the first round and in favour of a 6th Republic, described Macron’s victory as swimming in a sea of abstentionism. According to Le Monde, Macron’s true score is 38.5 per cent of registered voters. Macron beat Le Pen by 18.8 million votes to 13.3 – the nationalist right’s highest ever score – but compared to 2017 Macron’s votes dropped by two million, Le Pen’s increased by 2.7

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