Emmanuel Macron's En Marche movement beat the odds once — but can they do it again?
Emmanuel Macron made history this weekend when he resoundingly defeated far-right leader Marie Le Pen in the French election. But the country's youngest-ever president still faces an uphill battle.
Macron won in a landslide — 66 per cent to Le Pen's 34. Even so, it was a record performance for Le Pen's National Front, a party whose anti-immigrant policies once made it a pariah, and underlined the scale of the divisions that Macron must now try to heal.
What's more, La Republique En Marche, the political movement that carried Macron to victory, is barely a year old and has no seats in the National Assembly. That's something Sophie McLoughlin, a fundraiser for En Marche, hopes will change when voters head to the polls again in June for France's parliamentary elections.
As It Happens host Carol Off spoke with McLoughlin about Macron's historic win and what happens next. Here's what she had to say.
On Macron's rise to to victory
"He's not alone. We're now 270,000 behind him. His team is incredibly smart, young and is from the same generation. I'm 39. I've never voted before, and we all want to renew political life. This was not sheer luck or charm, let me tell you. It was a lot of hard work, and none of it was done randomly."
On Marine Le Pen's 11 million votes
"We know that we have a very big responsibly for the next five years because Marine Le Pen has had a very big score and has managed to get to the second round, which is very serious to us, and what we want to do now is make sure that doesn't happen again in five years."
On getting ready for the June election
"We have 577 deputies who are ready. We will be announcing their names next week. Half of them have never been elected before, so this is very new. They're people from civil society, like you and I, employees, small business owners.
"This is something that appeals to French people because they are tired of French politicians. They don't trust them anymore. We want to put confidence and optimism and, even if it sounds corny, kindness back into politics. And to have people like them that can be elected and represent them at the Assembly is very new — it's a very new idea."
On the challenges En Marche could face at the polls
"Our issue is that some people voted for Emmanuel Macron in order to block Marine Le Pen and Le Front National party. So they didn't really vote for our program, they just voted to block her. This will be our difficulty, but we are confident that we can do it."
On what happens if En Marche can't secure a majority
"This is the beginning of a new era. Basically, the right and the left imploded, so this is a new start. There is a real possibility — even if we do not get a majority, which I do not believe will happen — we can still work together. There are a lot of subjects on which left and right agree, actually. So what Emmanuel is saying is instead of tearing each other apart on subjects where we know we will not find a compromise, we should work together on subjects where everyone agrees. For instance, creating jobs."
With files from Reuters. For more, listen to our full interview with Sophie McLoughlin.