Emmanuel Macron is elected as the next president of France

AFTER the most thrilling and tumultuous election campaign of recent times, the French have defied populism and made history. On May 7th they elected Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old former Socialist economy minister who has never fought an election campaign in his life, to be their next president. According to early estimates, the one-time investment banker secured a resounding 65.8% of the vote in the final run-off against his opponent, the nationalist Marine Le Pen. It was an emphatic demonstration that it is possible in a Western liberal democracy to fashion a pro-European, centrist response to populism and nationalism.

This was a historic result on many counts. Mr Macron will become the youngest-ever French president, beating the previous record held by Napoléon Bonaparte’s nephew, Louis-Napoléon, elected in 1848 at the age of 40. In a country that likes presidential candidates to have serial battle scars, Mr Macron has never been a deputy, nor stood for election. He set up his political movement, En Marche! (On the Move!), only 13 months ago. His hopes of building it up against existing party machines, with their deep pockets and decades of experience, looked then like a far-fetched fantasy. Since the Fifth Republic was established by Charles de Gaulle in 1958, no independent candidate without electoral experience has come anywhere close to the French presidency.