Emmanuel Macron did better than it seems in the first round of France’s election

FOR THE third time in the past 20 years a candidate of the hard right has made it through to the run-off round of France’s presidential election, causing much anxiety in liberal circles across Europe and beyond. The panic is overdone. The French do not much like their presidents, often relishing elections as an opportunity to give an incumbent a good kick in the teeth. Only two have been re-elected since 1965. Bearing that in mind, Emmanuel Macron’s share of the vote on April 10th was close to a triumph. At 27.9%, it was the highest first-round score attained by any incumbent since 1988, and almost four points more than he got in 2017. That is testament to the competence with which he has governed, boosting employment and productivity and improving training and education while avoiding major mishaps, despite the disruption of covid-19.

Just as in 2017, Mr Macron will face Marine Le Pen in the run-off. Ms Le Pen has done a good job of rebranding herself and her party. She focused her campaign on bread-and-butter issues like energy prices rather than only on toxic ones like immigration. After her previous defeat she changed the name of her party from the National Front, which she had inherited from her overtly racist father, to the more mainstream-sounding National Rally. Even so, her share of the vote in the first round rose by less than two points, to 23.2%.