Hayden Dietz ~ News Editor
French elections were held between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen.
As expected, right wing insurgent Marine Le Pen was defeated by the incumbent President of France Macron.
Macron was a victim of extremely unpopular approval and the yellow vest protests last year, so despite his victory it is unlikely that he will have any easier time governing.
Le Pen gained eight points on Macron since the last election, and while no polling suggesting that Le Pen would win this election it was universally agreed that Le Pen has received a larger amount of the vote than thought possible less than a decade ago.
Despite this, Macron defeated Le Pen by a margin of more than ten points, 41% of the vote going to Le Pen and 58% going to Macron.
Le Pen as a candidate was seen as being more supportive of Russia, so it is likely that Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine negatively affected Le Pen’s performance in the election, as increased support for NATO and the European Union have resulted from the Russian threat.
The election would have been difficult for Le Pen to win regardless of Russian actions however, Le Pen and her father have been running since the 1970’s without taking power yet.
Le Pen ran as an economic populist candidate, supporting increased regulations on the economy and support for the working class, while Macron ran on continued austerity measures and economic liberalism in the European sense.
If Le Pen would have won, it would have been an extreme strain on the European Union, which has had another major power, the United Kingdom, leave recently.
Matthew Fields, a student at the University, stated his recognition that the election was similar to the United States election in 2020, with a right wing populist underdog defeated by a more moderate figure.
Justin Kachornvanich noted the ever increasing vote the National Rally has appeared to be obtaining, and wonders if this trend will stop before they reach 50%.
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