By Princely Onyenwe, Abuja
At a keenly contested Election, French President Emmanuel Macron is set to begin efforts to unite a deeply divided nation after winning re-election on Sunday in a battle.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday defeated his rival Marine Le Pen in presidential elections, projections showed, prompting a wave of relief in Europe that the far-right had been prevented from taking power.
However, the 44years Old Macron was re-elected For Second Term As French President.
Emmanuel Macron defeated his far-right rival MarineLePen on Sunday by a comfortable margin, early projections show.
Liberal Europeans everywhere has breath sigh of relief by this victory having Emmanuel Macron winning for the second time.
Macron became the first French leader to win re-election for 20 years, scoring 58.54% to Le Pen’s 41.46%.
Addressing a victory rally at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, where his supporters waved French and European flags, Macron vowed to respond “efficiently” to the “anger and disagreement” of voters who chose the far right.
“I know that a number of French people have voted for me today, not to support my ideas but to stop the ideas of the far right,” he said and called on supporters to be “kind and respectful” to others, because the country was riven by “so much doubt, so much division”.
He added: “I’m not the candidate of one camp any more, but the president of all of us.”
However, Macron’s victory was swiftly welcomed by EU leaders after a campaign the French president had described in its final days as a “battle for Europe” against the Eurosceptic Le Pen.
The European Council president Charles Michel tweeted:
“Bravo Emmanuel. In this turbulent period, we need a solid Europe and a France totally committed to a more sovereign and more strategic European Union.
” The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said: “I am delighted to be able to continue our excellent cooperation.”
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said French voters had delivered “a strong message in favour of Europe”. Macron’s first foreign trip as president is expected to be to Berlin to see Scholz.
But in the contrary, several hundred demonstrators from ultra-left groups took to the streets in some French cities to protest against Macron’s re-election and Le Pen’s score.
Police used tear gas to disperse gatherings in Paris, Lyon and the western city of Rennes.
But although Macron has promised his own swift new package of laws to address the cost of living crisis and tempered his time frame for raising the retirement age, he ultimately focused far less on his own manifesto in the final days and more on stopping what he called the “unthinkable”: the far-right, anti-immigration Le Pen taking the helm in France, the eurozone’s second biggest economy and a nuclear power.
Macron will use his win to bolster his push for an increased EU defence project, closer collaboration on immigration and more regulation to counter the weight of giant tech platforms such as Google. France holds the rotating European Council presidency until the end of June.
Le Pen, in turn, had conceded to Macron’s defeat.
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