Donald Trump Congratulates Emmanuel Macron For ‘Big Win’ In French Election

Former President Barack Obama backed Macron for Sunday’s second round.

President Donald Trump on Sunday congratulated Emmanuel Macron on his victory in the French presidential election.

With 99 percent of the polls reporting, Macron had won an estimated 66 percent of the vote to Le Pen’s approximately 34 percent.

The government will need to be reconfirmed after the National Assembly elections (June 11 and 18), when President Macron may have to choose a new prime minister depending on the new party lineup and the requirement of a majority (289 seats) in the lower house. “I respect them”, he said.

Speaking to thousands of his supporters at the Louvre in Paris, Mr Macron said: “Everyone said to us it was impossible, they didn’t know France”.

“We are in a dynamic where countries are pulling inward, into their national identities”, said Bruno Cautres, a political analyst at the Center for Political Research at Sciences Po, a university in Paris.

Macron’s view is held by many urban, largely affluent voters who see their nation as a cosmopolitan experiment that has worked and globalization as not only inevitable, but the key to future economic prosperity.

The 39-year-old will now become the youngest ever French President, with his inauguration expected before 14 May, when Hollande’s term expires. But previous winners all came from one of France’s two major parties.

Macron does not have a lot of time to savor his victory.

Aside from the last-minute glitches, his triumph marks a stunning rise for the banker turned politician, who only set up his En Marche!

Jean-Marie Le Pen, asked about his daughter’s plans for a makeover, said the party had to be “remain true.to the basics of the National Front”.

Many of those will have been supporters of the far-left maverick Jean-Luc Melenchon, whose high-spending, anti-EU, anti-globalization platform had many similarities with Le Pen’s.

Earlier this year, their marriage faced even more controversy when he was accused of having an affair with a man.

UPDATED French voters have again rejected a bid for the presidency from the nationalist right. The Interior Ministry announced the turnout had reached 65.3 percent, compared to 71.96 percent in the second round of presidential voting in 2012.

In her concession speech, Le Pen claimed the mantle of leader of the opposition, saying that the legislative elections were looming and “I’ll be at the head of this fight”.

The candidates’ polar-opposite visions presented the 47 million registered voters with the starkest possible choice.

It was this latter France that voted for Macron’s far-right opponent, Marine Le Pen.

Cazeneuve said the election of Emmanuel Macron will guarantee France’s continued membership in the European Union and position the country to “face the challenges of the world, especially in the face of the terrorist threat”.

A spokesman for the British prime minister said May had warmly congratulated him and told him she looked forward to working with him on a range of shared issues. Le Pen’s closed borders faced off against Macron’s open ones; his commitment to free trade ran against her proposals to protect the French from global economic competition and immigration. The majority of the 85,000 eligible French voters in the country live in Quebec.

The final day of the campaign on Friday was marked by a hacking attack and document leak targeting Macron.

If Mr. Macron can not obtain a majority in Parliament or enter into a coalition agreement, he will have to call the majority party to form the government, headed by a prime minister it nominates.

Like his predecessors, Macron will be judged above all on employment, and he has vowed to force through reform of France’s hidebound labour laws using executive orders during his first months in office. Both the news media and public opinion suggested Macron was the clear victor.

Nigel Farage, a prominent leader of Britain’s successful “Brexit” campaign to leave the European Union, said on Twitter that “a giant deceit has been voted for today”, adding, “Macron will be Juncker’s puppet”.