Vox: France’s best hope against a far-right takeover is an inexperienced former banker

In an interview for Vox, our deputy director Martin Michelot commented on the chances of Emmanuel Macron against the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in the upcoming presidential elections.

In an interview for Vox, our deputy director Martin Michelot commented on the chances of Emmanuel Macron against the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in the upcoming presidential elections.

He worked as an investment banker, which makes him hated, openly, by a part of the population who like nothing more than to criticize banks. But it is a funny argument, because people say, ‘He is a banker, he has no political experience, he’s never been elected.’ But at same time, [they] criticize people like [Francois] Fillon or Marine Le Pen who have been elected or been in politics their whole life.

Macron is a superstar in London, Berlin, Montreal — basically all the cities that French entrepreneurs have emigrated to to pursue business opportunities, especially in the startup world.

Read the whole article on Vox's wesite here. 

Martin Michelot
Senior Associate Research Fellow

Expertise: NATO and transatlantic security, European foreign policy and defense, French politics, elections and society, Visegrad Four and Central Europe, EU institutional issues