Emmanuel Macron and the En Marche! movement in Nantes, western France, on April 19, 2017.Vincent Feuray/Press Association. All rights reserved.The day after the stunning results of France’s presidential election first round last Sunday April 23 which saw maverick candidate Emmanuel Macron first past the post, overtaking in the last days of the campaign arch-favourite extreme right Marine Le Pen, things for a time seemed to be going back to the bad old days of French politics.
Or are they? After only a few hours, the traditional parties who have been ousted from the second round for the first time in the history of the Fifth Republic – the ruling Socialists and right wing Republicans (LR) – were back to their traditional petty party politics.
Yes, the PS, stunned by the humiliation of its candidate, leftist Benoît Hamon who came out fifth with 6 % of the votes, has immediately cast its support behind Macron. Yes this was expected but, for their divided leaders, the time has not yet come to analyse the reasons for this disaster. They intend to muddle through till next June’s legislative elections, hoping for an awakening of their traditional voters, who left in droves to vote Macron or for populist leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon (4th with 19%).
