Emmanuel Macron elected President of France

For­mer invest­ment banker and bicon­cep­tu­al inde­pen­dent Emmanuel Macron has been elect­ed Pres­i­dent of France in a blowout vic­to­ry over right wing extrem­ist Marine Le Pen, accord­ing to pro­jec­tions from French mass media.

Macron is trounc­ing Le Pen by a more than two-to-one mar­gin. He had the back­ing of much of the French polit­i­cal estab­lish­ment and (it turns out) a large swath of the elec­torate, with vot­ers from across the ide­o­log­i­cal spec­trum grav­i­tat­ing to his can­di­da­cy. A vic­to­ry for extrem­ist Le Pen would have meant big trou­ble for the Euro­pean Union, NATO, and civ­il lib­er­ties in France.

Watch live cov­er­age of the elec­tion results on France 24 (Eng­lish).

In a speech broad­cast short­ly after 8 PM Paris time (11 AM Pacif­ic), Le Pen con­ced­ed defeat and said she had called Macron to wish him well. She claimed she was hap­py with the result and vowed that she would not “fade” from French pol­i­tics. This is only the sec­ond time that Le Pen’s extreme Nation­al Front has made it into the sec­ond round of the French pres­i­den­tial election.

The thir­ty-nine year old Macron, mean­while, has become the youngest per­son in his­to­ry to be elect­ed Pres­i­dent of France.

Spokes­peo­ple for British Prime Min­is­ter There­sa May and Ger­man Chan­cel­lor Angela Merkel have already extend­ed their con­grat­u­la­tions, wel­com­ing the result.

Macron’s deci­sive win is good news for a West­ern world that has been rocked by the tur­moil of Brex­it and Don­ald Trump’s Elec­toral Col­lege vic­to­ry. French vot­ers, at least, have firm­ly repu­di­at­ed right wing extrem­ism with this vote.

Macron will take office on May 14th, suc­ceed­ing incum­bent Pres­i­dent Fran­cois Hol­lande, who chose not to seek a sec­ond term.

The chal­lenge now for pro­gres­sives in France is to find uni­ty and pur­pose in the upcom­ing elec­tions for the Nation­al Assembly.