APD Review: The road of new French president is still full of obstacles

By APD writer Fan Zhengjie

On May 8, the French Ministry of the Interior announced the results of the election, the 39-year-old ex-economy minister Emmanuel Macron won with 66.1% votes.

The far-right party candidate Le Pen made a speech to admit defeat as well as the attained victory. The drama of election, after all, didn’t bring about the Black Swan, but the future trend of the political situation in France is unpredictable.

Macron won the election without suspense, but his hard battle is just beginning.

The far-right party candidate Le Pen

Faced with the far-right party’s high vote - Marine le pen has won 33.9% of the votes, twice of the record her father made in 2002 political earthquake. Needless to say that the abstention rate of the election has been the highest since 1969, many voters had no choice but to vote for Macron for the purpose of resisting the radical woman who claim to leave EU once she is elected.

Macron is obliged to be cautious about the victory and struggle to get more support from these people to do the reforms. Looking ahead, Macron still have a lot of problems to deal with:

Firstly, the legislative election in June. One choice for him is to strength his new-born party by absorbing politicians and senators from the socialist party, the republican party, etc. The other choice is to accept the cohabitation, but the latter situation might lead to the politics of France back into the IV republic if dealt in appropriately. There have been three times of cohabitation in French history, which means the Prime Minister and the President are from different wings of parties, which resulted in the low administrative efficiency.

Secondly, the aspiration of the society. After being elected, Macron is not only responsible for his voters, but also for the rest of the citizens. It’s necessary for him to respond to the political appeal of the one-third voters who has chosen Le Pen. The National Front, with the "French decline" as the core point of view, has succeed in developing the issues like immigration, globalization, Frexit and the French economy into the focus spot in French political and electoral life has been a considerable part of the stability of voters follow. The 21.3% support rate of first round and 35% means that Le Pen’s influence may affect the Macron's public opinion foundation.

Thirdly, the social problems faced with the new president are challenging. France's unemployment rate is above the EU average, in the meantime, the contradiction between high-level welfare and low economic growth stands out. The security situation deteriorated in recent years, which causes the angry and insecurity among the citizens. The two rounds of elections have aroused the anger as well as the dissatisfaction in French society, exacerbating social fragmentation and political fragmentation. The new government needs to reconstruct the administrative team as soon as possible, but also needs to find effective measures to promote the reform for the purpose of stabilizing of the whole nation.

As Macron has mentioned in the reunion of Louver on 7th evening: "The Republic is faced with unprecedented challenges." In the uncertain global circumstances, is the new president capable of leading the France forward? Let us wait and see.

Ms. Fan Zhengjie is a research assistant concentrating on French Political and Economic Policy, Sino-France/Sino-EU relations, European Affairs, French Policies in Africa. Fan Zhengjie received her M.A. in International Relations from School of International Studies and B.A. in French Literature from School of Foreign Languages, Renmin University. She also holds a Graduate Diploma in European History from the exchange program sponsored by University Paris X Nanterre and Renmin University.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)