France’s presidential election

French President Emmanuel Macron won a second term in a run-off election on 24 April, beating challenger Marine Le Pen by 17 percentage points. But Le Pen received the highest-ever number of votes for a far-right presidential candidate, illustrating how French politics is continuing to become polarised around the extremes. An emboldened Macron will seek to launch new domestic-policy initiatives and redouble his diplomatic efforts related to the war in Ukraine. He will also pursue an ambitious policy agenda in the European Union, focused on building a more robust indigenous economic base, reducing energy dependencies and improving European defence capabilities.