France but also Europe and the markets can breathe a sigh of relief. Emanuel Macron, the young liberal-progressive and pro-European candidate, won the first round of the presidential elections with 23,75% of the votes and placed a strong stake on conquering the Elysée.
Macron will face Marine le Pen in the ballot between two Sundays, the far-right candidate of the Front National, who came second with 21,53% but did not break through and received even fewer votes than the last regional elections (27%).
Clearly defeated both the Gaullist Fillon (19,9%) and the far-left candidate Mélenchon (19,6%), who remained under 20%.
It is the first time in the presidential elections that the traditional parties - Gaullists and Socialists - do not even make it to the ballot.
Now the forty-year-old Macron has all the underdogs on his side. Both Fillon and the socialist Hamon have already instructed their voters to vote for Macron in the second round. Appreciation for the young ex-minister also arrived immediately from the outgoing President of the Republic Francois Hollande.
In view of the runoff, Macron can collect the votes necessary to conquer the Elysée from both the moderate right and the left, while Le Pen is unable to make alliances and has already filled up.
It can celebrate the European Union, from which PEN had asked to leave and which – like the euro – would have collapsed in the event of a victory by the sovereign and anti-Europeanist right of the Front National. But most likely the markets will also celebrate today, even if Piazza Affari today will have to face the technical drop of half a percentage point for the coupon detachment of seven big names.
On the Italian political level, Matteo Renzi is also celebrating, who next Sunday hopes to be crowned new secretary of the Democratic Party in the primaries and who has never hidden his sympathy for Macron, who has amply reciprocated. Populism and anti-Europeanism can be defeated. However, there is another lesson that Renzi will do well to learn from Macron: the French candidate always talks about "us" and his team and rejects his personalities. A tactic that has contributed in no small way to his resounding success and that people like, just as they like his wager on reforms and on Europe.
