Last week’s election in France saw Emmanuel Macron of ‘En Marche!’ win a decisive victory over Marine Le Pen of the National Front. Macron, who has never held an elected office, marks a growing trend of Presidents without a traditional background in politics rising to power. So who is this rising star of French politics, and how did he take power so successfully?
Who is he?
Emmanuel Macron is a former civil servant and investment banker. Macron was educated in Amiens but was sent to Paris for his final year in school after his parents’ alarm at the bond he had formed with Brigitte Auziere, a married teacher who later became his wife. Aged just 39, he will become the youngest President in French history and the youngest head of state since Napoleon.
Macron’s decisive victory over Marine Le Pen, the far right candidate of the National Front has been hailed by his supporters as a victory over the tide of right wing populism that has swept across Europe in recent months.
Ideologically, Macron has been characterised as a centrist and a liberal. His party, ‘En Marche!’ is described as a liberal and progressive political movement. Perhaps due to his background in economics, working for many years as an investment banker, Macron is a staunch Europhile and is in favour of the free market. He advocates a Nordic-style economic model for France, a combination of moderate spending cuts of €60bn over five years with a €50bn stimulus package over the same period, lower taxes and an extension of the welfare state. Macron also plans to invest €50bn euros into a green energy programme.
In terms of politics, Macron is firmly on the Left on social issues including the freedom to practise religion in a secular state, equality and immigration. In stark contrast to Le Pen, Macron supports the open door policy towards refugees and promotes tolerance towards Muslims and immigrants. Providing a fresh perspective on politics, Macron seeks to bridge liberal values in economics (a traditional feature of the right) with liberal values on social and identity matters (a characteristic of the left).
Does Macron represent a welcome change in European politics?
With Macron’s aim to ‘transcend the left/right divide’, it seems to mark a new approach to French politics. Macron insists that he is ‘neither of the left or the right’ but ‘for France’. He presents a welcome change to the worrying far-right, populist trend that appears to be sweeping across Europe.
The election of Macron demonstrates that the modern voter wants something that doesn’t fit the old, failed patterns of traditional politics. Thankfully, Macron is a shining example that it is not only extremists who can respond to this demand for new political perspectives. Amidst all the fears of an uncontrollable tidal wave of far-right populism, Macron represents the potential of innovative, new political approaches that have been successful in countering the xenophobic rhetoric that has contributed to the rise of Trump and Marine Le Pen.