An untested whizkid has
shot to power as President of France in his very first election campaign,
crumpling older, hard-bitten veterans in his wake.
Emmanuel Macron's
astonishing rise from provincial straight-A student to Rothschild banker, to
civil servant, to Sunday's victory as President of the sixth-biggest economy in
the world seems like one of the mythic tales of success familiar to all French
children, in which a gallant young hero overcomes impossible odds to achieve
giant success.
At just 39, Macron is France's youngest leader ever—breaking a
169-year record held by the famed French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, who took
power at age 40.
Thousands of people poured in the huge courtyard of the Louvre
Museum after polls closed at 8 p.m. on Sunday night, hugging each other and
chanting "Macron Président!" as they waved flags. Macron defeated Le Pen
by 66.1% to 33.9%, with 99% of votes counted.
From outside the Louvre, Meriem Tertouche, 40, an immigrant from
Algeria, said she drove into Paris with her three small children from their
home 120 miles away to celebrate Macron’s victory, adding that she had been
"horrified by Le Pen and all her talk against immigrants."
In an address to the nation from inside his office, Macron said
he had sensed the "rage, anxiety and doubt" coursing through much of
France. "The renewal of public life starts tomorrow," he said.
And yet, after Macron takes the oath of office inside the ornate
Elysée Palace next Monday, the years ahead could hold far more difficult and
complicated plot twists than those heroic tales suggest—challenges that will
likely make his past five months of campaigning seem simple.
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