A Look At How Macron Becomes First French President In 20 Years To Win Re-Election

Emmanuel Macron has made history after being re-elected for a second term as French president.

He becomes the first president in 20 years to win re-election after defeating his far-right rival, Marine Le Pen, on Sunday.

cheers of joy erupted as the results appeared on a giant screen at the Champ de Mars park at the foot of the Eiffel tower, where Macron supporters waved French and EU flags. People hugged each other and chanted “Macron”.

The polls showed Macron with 58.2 percent of the vote.

Exit polls in France have historically proven accurate because they are based on actual ballot papers rather than verbal sampling at polling booths.

Macron, who won against Le Pen in the last presidential election five years ago, had warned of civil unrest if Le Pen whose policies include a ban on wearing Muslim headscarves in public is elected and has called on democrats of all stripes to back him.

Le Pen focused her campaign on the rising cost of living in the world’s seventh-largest economy, which many French says has worsened with the surge in global energy prices.

Opinion polls in recent days gave Macron a solid and slightly growing lead as analysts said Le Pen, despite her efforts to soften her image and tone down some of her National Rally party’s policies, remained unpalatable for many.

Early data from yesterday’s election indicated that almost 29 percent of the electorate did not bother to vote in a poll that some voters saw as pitting “the plague against cholera”.

Hugo Winter, a 26-year-old salesman in Paris, was among those who did not bother to vote.

“I don’t see the point in choosing between two things that don’t correspond to my ideas,” Winter said as he did his food shopping.

“We live in a parallel world. The politicians don’t represent the people.”

In Douai, a mid-sized town in northern France where Le Pen was ahead of Macron in the first round of voting two weeks ago, pensioner Andrée Loeuillet, 69, said she had voted for Macron, as she did on April 10.

“He has his faults, but he has qualities too, she said. “He is the one best placed to continue – we are living through difficult times.”