The world woke up yesterday morning to the news that Emmanuel Macron would win his second term as President of France. Mr Macron outperformed expectations and secured himself a comfortable 58.5% against Marine Le Pen’s 41.5%.
The world also woke up to a hashtag trending on twitter: #Rigged.
Being a Brit, I have the privilege of not having to worry too much about the integrity of French elections, however, we as a nation should take note of the situation across the channel as it unfolds, as this may happen to us in just over 2 years’ time in the next general election.
It wouldn’t be the first time, after speculations over the Brexit referendum, and the ongoing.
There are several reasons leading to the upset around the result, one of which could be Macron’s low approval rating. The majority of polls put Macron and Castex between the low 40s and high 30s.
I have already mentioned Le Pen, Macron’s only opposition in the second round of voting, however, voters are presented with a third choice.
Around 6% of the ballots were spoiled, on top of this 28% of voters didn’t vote.
So, you have a president that most people don’t want, an opposition wanted even less, and over 60% of the population now either completely disenchanted with their own nation’s governance or stuck with no representation.
T.S Elliot once wrote: “I must tell you that I should really like to think there’s something wrong with me – Because, if there isn’t, then there’s something wrong with the world itself -and that’s much more frightening!”
Could it be that as people we choose to believe that there’s something wrong with a person if they aren’t achieving the results we were expecting them to? Rather than the system that allowed them to achieve it?
For over 60% of the French peoples it doesn’t matter if the election was rigged or not, because even if it were, for them, nothing would have changed.
In a time of both apathy and polarisation, through disease, war and, if we’re not careful, economic collapse, too, the newly elected President Macron has promised to be the “president of everyone”.
How he handles these challenges remains to be seen. All we can do now is sit, watch, and learn from what happens in France.