Congratulations, Emmanuel Macron!
He is Europe's new hope carrier. 39-year-old Emmanuel Macron has knocked out his rival, Marine Le Pen, from the right-wing National Front: he received 66.06 percent of the votes, and Le Pen lost 33.94 percent.
Macron's Values: Europe, Enlightenment, Humanism
Macron is a passionate European and is committed to a pluralistic society. He stands neither right nor left, but in the middle, as he says.
In his speech to the Louvre last night, he emphasized:Europe and the world are looking at us. We are expected to embody the spirit of the Enlightenment, a world of more humanism, more security, more ecology and growth."
He explicitly turns against the politics of fear propagated by Marine Le Pen.
European anthem instead of Marseillaise
On the occasion of the victory celebration Macron chose not the French national anthem, but the European anthem. The future president wants to strengthen Europe and go further than some other EU states would like to be: he calls for a common budget and a common defense policy. In France, he wants to reform the labor market, improve social mobility, streamline the state and cut spending. He wants to invest in the energy transition and in the police.
Who is the "Obama of France"?
The graduate philosopher and former investment banker was appointed economics minister in 2014. But two years later he broke with François Hollande and founded his own independent movement? En Marche? (in English:? forward?). Within a year he was able to mobilize more than 230 000 followers. Especially young people celebrate him as "French Obama" or "French Kennedy".
The expectations of him are high, as well as the expected hurdles. Macron wants to reunite the divided country, he must quickly found a party and in the parliamentary elections in June, he should get as far as possible a majority in order to be able to act. And many French only chose him to prevent Le Pen and not because they really stand behind him.
His stepchildren are older than him
Not only his professional career, his private life is remarkable: As a 17-year-old student, he fell in love with his German teacher ChroniquesDuVasteMonde Trogneux. To avoid a scandal, he moved from the northern French Amiens to Paris. As a farewell, he is said to have said to her: "I will come back and marry you."
13 years later he fulfilled his promise. ChroniquesDuVasteMonde Trogneux brought three children into marriage, two of them older than their stepfather. Common children do not have the couple.
