This is a result they did not see coming.
As they struggle with the heavy consequences of the war in Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia, Europeans were dumbfounded on Sunday when they learned of the results of the first round of the French presidential election.
The tricolor electorate is divided into three blocks, giving pride of place to extreme right and left votes, necessarily much less "fluid" and more Eurosceptic.
And Emmanuel Macron does not have the same reservations as in 2017, when he could notably count on the Fillonist votes.
To discover
LIVE - Presidential election: follow the campaign between the two rounds
Presidential 2022: find here the result of the first round of the election
Read also
2017-2022: Macron, Le Pen, Mélenchon, how the three France have evolved
Admittedly, Europe expected to see Marine Le Pen face the outgoing president in the second round.
But, as Ian Bond and John Springford of the think-tank Center for European Reform point out, “
she complacently assumed
” that Emmanuel Macron would win the presidential election.
This certainty has crumbled.
And the European bubble fell back into the same worries it had known for five years...
This article is for subscribers only.
You have 75% left to discover.
Freedom is also to go to the end of a debate.
Keep reading your article for 1€ the first month
I ENJOY IT
Already subscribed?
Login