PODCAST: What's next for France after Macron wins re-election?
With the results in and Emmanuel Macron having secured a second term as French president, The Local's Talking France podcast breaks down the results and looks ahead at the next few days, June's parliamentary elections and the five years of Macron's second term.
As the results came in, Ben McPartland was joined by The Local France's editor Emma Pearson and veteran political columnist John Lichfield to try and work out what it all means.
Macron was re-elected with a 17 point lead, the first French president in 20 years to win a second term. However turnout was the lowest since 1969 and of those people who did vote, four in 10 voted for the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.
Listen to the Talking France podcast on Spotify, Apple, on the link below or download it HERE.
Add this to the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, the war in Ukraine and the likelihood of further international political and economic turmoil, and Macron has a challenge on his hands.
John Lichfield told us: "I think Macron will push ahead with his reforms anyway, but I hope he has learned from some of his mistakes last time.
"Certainly on the pension reform, he does need to create a platform of agreement with unions, with employers and within society in general before pushing ahead with a scheme that people don't understand very well and don't want.
"But I think he will push ahead - in a sense he has nothing to lose because he can't run again in 2027 - so I think he will go for broke but I suspect that most of his time, as it has been in the first five years, will be spent fighting fires and surviving crises."
We're also looking ahead to the parliamentary elections in June - why they're important, what is likely to happen and some of the familiar faces that we're likely to see again.
You can find the whole Talking France series HERE.
See Also
As the results came in, Ben McPartland was joined by The Local France's editor Emma Pearson and veteran political columnist John Lichfield to try and work out what it all means.
Macron was re-elected with a 17 point lead, the first French president in 20 years to win a second term. However turnout was the lowest since 1969 and of those people who did vote, four in 10 voted for the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.
Listen to the Talking France podcast on Spotify, Apple, on the link below or download it HERE.
Add this to the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, the war in Ukraine and the likelihood of further international political and economic turmoil, and Macron has a challenge on his hands.
John Lichfield told us: "I think Macron will push ahead with his reforms anyway, but I hope he has learned from some of his mistakes last time.
"Certainly on the pension reform, he does need to create a platform of agreement with unions, with employers and within society in general before pushing ahead with a scheme that people don't understand very well and don't want.
"But I think he will push ahead - in a sense he has nothing to lose because he can't run again in 2027 - so I think he will go for broke but I suspect that most of his time, as it has been in the first five years, will be spent fighting fires and surviving crises."
We're also looking ahead to the parliamentary elections in June - why they're important, what is likely to happen and some of the familiar faces that we're likely to see again.
You can find the whole Talking France series HERE.
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