Emmaneul Macron Re-Elected President in French Elections

The sighs of relief could be heard all the way to Washington, as French leaderEmmanuelMacron secured another five-year term. A contest that risked shattering the Western alliance against Russia and jeopardizing the very survival of the European Union was the reason why polls narrowed before the election.

The result was less than the one in the last face-off between the two politicians. Back then, 39-year-old Macron was the outsider and had a 32-point lead over Le Pen, who was the leader of the National Front.

In the past five years, he made it easier for companies to hire and fire people and abolished the wealth tax. He was forced to drop the increase in fuel tax when it sparked the so-called "yellow vest" movement, which lasted for months in the country. Fourteen thousand people have been killed by the Pandemic in France, and COVID-19 came in 2020. As the war in the Ukraine broke out, the E.U.'s major conduit to Russian President Vladimir Putin was thrust into the role of the major conduit.

There is a chance that the president will win the re- election. What comes after could be more difficult.

Since 2002, when Jacques Chirac defeated Jean-Marie Le Pen in the presidential election, the French leader has only won reelection once.

Despite barely campaigning for months, he was able to play the global leader in the lead up to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. April 24 will be a referendum for or against Europe, and we are for that.

His shrunken margin of victory signals the fraught political divide he now faces, as he settles back into the Elysian parliamentary elections, which take place in 2019.

The wunderkind will need to reckon with anger over his policies, including his determination to raise the public-pension age. There is a deep personal dislike of Macron among many French, who describe him in numerous opinion polls and to journalists as arrogant and aloof, and too hidebound to the interests of the rich.

Struggling to make ends meet amid rising inflation and meager paychecks and pensions, many have said they don't connect withMacron's vision of a globalized, E.U.-centric France.

In a flurry of campaign stops, he told voters that he had created 1 million new jobs and spent billions on people. The official unemployment figure of the government is 7.4%, which is the lowest in 13 years.

More than half of the voters in the election's first round chose far-right or far- left politicians, a reflection of widespread anxiety and discontent with mainstream politics.

Le Pen won an important victory despite not being the president. She turned her party into a force in French politics, compared to the 18% of votes her father got in 2002.

Le Pen focused more on the economy than her anti-Muslim views, in order to change her image. She promised to cut sales tax and eliminate income tax for people under 30. She told voters that he embodied power without empathy.

The debate last Wednesday was about her stance against the country's estimated 6 million Muslims. He said that Le Pen's plan to ban Muslim women from wearing headscarves in public would cause a civil war.

The far right won in France.

Le Pen had a problem with her admiration for Putin.

A photo of Le Pen shaking hands with Putin was included in many Le Pen campaign brochures. Le Pen still owes a Russian military contractor a 12 million dollar loan from a Kremlin-linked bank.

He told her that when she spoke to Russia, she was talking to her bankers.

With Europe facing the biggest conflict since the Second World War, Le Pen said that she would withdraw France from NATO's integrated military command.

In the final days of the campaign, both Le Pen andMacron tried to win over the 7.7 million people who had voted for the far- left leader.

The abstention rate was the highest since 1969 when it was 28.2%, with many people telling journalists that they rejected both choices on the ballot. Macron will have to try to speak to all the French people, to close the big gap between his supporters and Le Pen's voters.

Even the most ardent critics of Macron pleaded with voters not to vote for Le Pen. The leaders of the country's two powerful trade-union coalitions have staged protests and strikes for years over the policies of the other.

The left-leaning Liberation newspaper, which has lashed out at Macron for years, went further, publishing a weekend front page in fire-alarm red.

Millions of French voters did that on Sunday.

We can be reached at letters@time.com.