In an election, where the two mainstream French political parties, the centre-left Socialist Party (PS), with its government in Paris under French president Francois Hollande, and the centre-right Republicans (LR), have failed to reach the final round of the presidential polls, history will be written on May 7 when France will vote to choose between two top candidates from the first round of elections held on April 23.
Emmanuel Macron won the first
round with a narrow margin. He secured 23.8 per cent votes while his rival,
Marine Le Pen of the far-right Front National (FN) party, came a close second
with 21.5 per cent votes. The polls go to the second and run-off round when no
candidate is able to secure 50 per cent of the votes in the first round,
something that has never happened.
France that is known for its
liberal values, politics and social life, will either have its youngest president
in Emmanuel Macron who is 39 and who formed his political party, En Marche (EM),
that translates to 'on the move', just a year ago. In fact, according to an
analysis by The Economist, it would be the first time in the history of the major
western economies, i.e., United States, Germany, Britain and France, that a
leader younger than the median age of the country has been elected, if Macron,
indeed, emerges as the winner. Macron is two years younger than the French
media age.
Or France will have a
far-right candidate in Marine Le Pen, 48, in the Elysee Palace, the official
residence of the French president, who will take France out of the European
Union and who has vowed to upturn the liberal credentials of France by adopting
tough anti-globalization, anti-immigration, anti-Euro measures and
anti-Islamism measures.
She, in fact, sees globalization
and Islamism as major threats against France. She finds the two helping each
other and conspiring to bring France down. Her election manifesto has promised
to curb immigration, even the legal one, and says the citizenship can only be "inherited
or merited". She keeps the Brexit in the hallowed halls of the fall of the
Berlin Wall. She also describes Donald
Trump's victory in the US presidential election as an importation building
block toward making a new world.
For the moment, Macron looks set to win the election
on May 7. He has won the televised debated between him and Marine Le Pen, held
on May 3, comfortably, with 63% viewers finding him more convincing. And for
the final rounds, all pre-poll surveys have given him a 60-40 lead over Le Pen.
©SantoshChaubey
