PARIS: The results of France’s first round of presidential election made front page headlines around the world on Monday.
Many newspapers noted that a likely win for pro-European centrist Emmanuel Macron would be good news for the European Union but warned that his far-right rival Marine Le Pen could still pull off a surprise victory.
Media in neighbouring Britain hailed pro-European Macron’s strong showing while adding that Le Pen’s second-place success should not be ignored.
“The threat from the French extreme right is not over,” the centre-left Guardian said, describing Macron as the “best hope of a deeply-troubled but great country”.
Similar caution appeared on the front page of France’s leftist daily Liberation which ran a picture of Macron with the headline: “Just one more step.”
“The FN won its highest ever score in a presidential election. And if the fight turns into a confrontation between people and elites, who can be sure of the outcome?” it said.
“In this new world, anything is possible. In other words, stay vigilant,” the paper said, while voicing hope that the “young leader of the (first round) vote will defeat the wicked stepmother.”
French communist paper L’Humanite had a picture of Le Pen with the words “Never” across it. “Let’s rally together to block her way,” it said.
The Financial Times predicted May 7 would be an “act of coronation” for him, but warned that governing would not come so easily, saying Macron could be forced into “hard bargaining” to implement his reform agenda.
An opinion piece on America’s rightwing Fox News website said Le Pen was still in with a good chance and referenced US President Donald Trump’s shock win, saying: “She may pull off an even bigger surprise than the Tweeter in Chief. Yuge, in fact.”
Many papers pointed to the historic defeat inflicted on traditional parties, with the Wall Street Journal calling the vote a “stunning rebuke of France’s mainstream political forces”.
“A huge leap into the unknown,” wrote the French economic daily Les Echos which described the vote as an expression of people being “fed up to the back teeth with the ‘system’ (and) making a clean break with the past.”
But Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung noted that more than 40 per cent had cast their ballots for the far-right or far-left.
“Macron’s victory is so narrow that in the two previous presidential elections, he wouldn’t have won a place in the second round,” it said. — AFP
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