President Emmanuel Macron
After a bitter
and divisive campaign that had France and most of Europe on edge,
centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron won the second round of France’s
presidential election last Sunday. He defeated the far-right candidate
Marine Le Pen of the National Front by 65.7% to Le Pen’s 34.3% of the
votes.
Born on December 21, 1977 in the
northern city of Amiens in Somme, President-elect Macron is the youngest
person to be elected president in France’s history and the youngest
French leader since Napoleon Bonaparte.
Macron attended Paris Naterre University
where he studied philosophy and has a Masters of Public Affairs degree
from Sciences Po. He also graduated from the Ecole Nationale
D`administration (ENA) in 2004. He was an investment banker at
Rothschild & Cie Banque and served as Deputy Secretary-General under
Francois Holland’s first government in 2012. He was appointed Minister
of Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs in 2014 and resigned in August
last year. Though he was a member of the Socialist Party (PS) from
2006-2009, Macron announced last November that he would run for
presidency under the banner of En Marche! i.e. Forward, a centrist
political movement that he founded in April last year.
He finished tops in the first round of
the election on April 23 2017. Macron campaigned for closer European
cooperation, spoke against policies targeting religious minorities, and
he also spoke about reducing corporate and wealth taxes and reducing
public spending. His opponent the 48-year-old Marine Le Pen campaigned
against the European Union [EU], against immigration and against Islam,
blaming the three for everything wrong with France. She said she would
hold a referendum on EU membership within six months and cut immigration
to no more than 10,000 people. She said mass immigration caused by
globalization left French people feeling “dispossessed” of their
country. She also said “Islamic fundamentalism is attacking us at home.”
Eleven million Frenchmen and women voted for her last Sunday.
In his victory speech Macron spoke on
national unity, saying the task ahead was huge and would need the
commitment of all French, while saying that “France will be on the front
in the fight against terrorism.” Parliamentary elections are due in a
few weeks’ time and Macron needs a victory there to form a stable
government. Most European and other world leaders breathed a sigh of
relief with Macron’s victory. It brought to a halt fears that
ultra-right wing populists will take over power in many Western nations
following Donald Trump’s victory in the US last November. If Le Pen had
won and pulled France out of the EU, it could have spelt an end to the
EU, France and Germany being its remaining key members after Britain’s
exit. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a congratulatory message
that Macron’s victory was victory for a strong, united Europe.
This French election also generated
great interest in Africa, which has many countries psychologically and
economically linked to France due to a colonial history. The fate of
millions of people of African descent living in France was also a factor
in our interest. Nigerians also paid attention to the French election,
surrounded as we are by Francophone countries. France has played an
important role in the fight against Boko Haram and has supported our
neighbours to fully cooperate in the war. Apart from that, France is
also an important trading partner of Nigeria and we have other warm
cultural and political ties which could have been threatened if Le Pen
had won the French presidency.
The French elections hold many other
lessons for Nigeria in democratic practice. Elimination of godfathers
and money and the rigorous focus on issues was a big lesson, as was the
lesson of a very young man emerging victorious. In Nigeria, Macron is
not even qualified to contest for president because he is under 40. He
was also not backed by any major political party. We look forward to
better relations with France under its youthful, centrist new
president.
POSTED BY:OPUOMONI PRIYE
DATE:05/15/2017
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