French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron celebrate after his victory in France’s presidential election at the Champ de Mars in Paris, April 24, 2022 [Bertrand Guay/AFP]
French President Emmanuel Macron won a second term in office in a runoff election held on Sunday, 24 April 2022.
The 44-year-old defeated his far-right rival Marine Le Pen by a comfortable margin.
With nearly all votes counted, Macron was on course for 58.6 per cent of the vote, according to interior ministry figures.
Meanwhile, Le Pen (53), the candidate of the far-right National Rally party (Rassemblement National or RN), received 41.4 per cent of the votes.
Le Pen was running for the presidency for the third time and this time she performed far much better than in previous attempts.
In his victory speech, Macron admitted that many had only voted for him just to keep Le Pen out of power. He said:
Many in this country voted for me not because they support my ideas but to keep out those of the far-right.
I want to thank them and know I owe them a debt in the years to come.
He also promised to unify France saying “no one in France will be left by the wayside” and pledged to be a “president for all”.
Macron is the first French president to win a second term in 20 years.
