Foreign Policy: Emmanuel Macron, the Next President of France

Our Martin Michelot contributed to an article on Foreign Policy on the results of the French presidential elections, which ended in favour of Emmanuel Macron.

But forming and leading a governing coalition is not so simple. For one thing, the traditional right and left parties — namely, the Republicans and the Socialists — were left in shambles after they both failed to make the second round (the first time in the history of the Fifth Republic that neither was able to do so).

What will also be interesting to see is whether French politicians can develop a coalition and compromise culture. In the context of the left/right divide, whoever was in opposition tended to vote against the majority along pretty strict party lines, in what was a rather unconstructive system.

You can read the whole article on Foreign Policy's website.

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