Macron Won. And So Did the Far Right.
Marine Le Pen had her best performance to date, and has successfully pushed many of her far-right ideas into the mainstream.
For the second time in a row, Emmanuel Macron emerged victorious against his far-right rival Marine Le Pen in what was a tighter contest than their one five years ago. But Le Pen didn’t sound defeated. In her concession speech last night, she praised the results, her best electoral performance to date, as a “resounding victory” and suggested that this election would not mark the end of her political career. “In this defeat,” she told supporters, “I cannot help but feel a sense of hope.”
That feeling isn’t wholly unfounded. Macron’s decisive victory notwithstanding, Le Pen is not walking away empty-handed. In a little more than a decade, she
