Emmanuel Macron, the centrist candidate in the run-off with Marine Le Pen in Sunday’s second round of the French Presidential election appears to have won the contest by a slightly wider margin than had been predicted during the last few days of campaigning.
According to an average of several exit polls on Sunday night, Macron coasted home with 62 percent of the votes against Le Pen’s 38 percent. The abstention rate was high, close to 30 percent, suggesting that voters who had supported the two other more traditional candidates in the first round had refused to choose “between the lesser of two evils” and had instead stayed away from polling stations. As Monday is WWII Victory Day (la fête de la victoire), a holiday in France, the long weekend may have also impacted voter turnout.
The campaign has been watched closely across Europe, particularly because Le Pen had campaigned to leave the euro, a move that would have further destabilised the European Union following Brexit. European leaders will welcome the poll result, as France is seen as one of the main pillars of European unity.
In his speech, Macron told supporters, “I will defend Europe … our civilisation is at stake.”
The last few hours of the election were electrified by allegations from the Macron camp that foreign hackers had leaked thousands of confidential campaign emails. None of these appeared to incriminate the candidate but underlined the threat to democratic processes. German leaders fear similar campaigns during forthcoming parliamentary elections in September.