France walked to the edge of the abyss, looked over, and decided to turn back. This is the outcome to the country’s most seminal presidential election for a generation, ending in a decisive victory for centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron over his far right, Front National opponent Marine Le Pen by 66% to 34% on May 7th.
Regardless, the result carries with it a warning it would be folly to dismiss. With just under 11 million votes received, Le Pen and the far right – not only in France but throughout Europe – still have reason to believe that better days lie ahead when it comes to their forward march to power. Consequently, for those who consider the far right to be a greater threat than the extreme centre, you did not have to be a fulsome supporter of Emmanuel Macron to oppose Marine Le Pen and the French National Front.
Which is where we come to the apparent foolhardiness of the position adopted by the far left candidate, Jean-Luc Melenchon, with his refusal to endorse Macron after losing the first round of the election on April 23rd. Perhaps the most telling statistic to come out of the election is the record number of people, 12 million, who were eligible to vote but opted to abstain. At just over 65% the turnout was historically low, which given the stakes involved suggests a high level of conscious abstention, based on the narrative that both Macron and Le Pen are as bad as each other.
This synonym is hard to conjure with however. Why? Because though the…