Europe

Emmanuel Macron won a clear victory 66% to 34% over Marine Le Pen in the closing round of the French elections for President on Sunday, May 7. The emphasis of Macron is on renewal - a new society on new foundations rather than a reform of existing institutions and policies.

In France, as in the United States and many other countries, real change may be coming, but it will require some more years of struggle for that.

The French Presidential election run-off will be between Emmanuel Macron, a 39 year-old Left-center economist who was for two years the Minister of the Economy in the current government, and Marine Le Pen, a Right-nationalist. The positions of the two are in clear opposition, especially as concerns European integration.

While France teeters on the brink of the far right, left parties elsewhere are showing surprising strength.

As the economic turmoil continues to spread, the idea that one can win as a leftist may again become legitimate. It’s a bit equivalent to what might have happened had Bernie Sanders won the Democratic primary in the United States.

On December 4, 2016, Austrian Green Party candidate Alexander Van der Bellen was elected president against the far-right nationalist leader Norbert Hofer. The December 2016 vote took place against a background that has seen a steady rise of right-nationalist currents in much of Europe.