PARIS (Dispatches) -- Emmanuel Macron on Sunday became the first French president in 20 years to win a second term. His victory over Marine Le Pen set off riots and protests across the country.
Police were shown in videos charging against protesters and using tear gas to clear areas. There were reports of two deaths from police shooting into one car.
Macron, who became the country’s youngest president when he defeated Le Pen in 2017 with 66 percent of the vote, defeated her again Sunday but with only 58.8 percent of the popular vote this time.
Despite winning by a comfortable margin, the abstention rate was marked to be the highest since 1969, with a sizeable number of voters refusing to vote for either of the two lead contenders.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky praised Macron through a tweet. The people protesting in the streets of Paris and Lyon thought otherwise.
Police fired on a car in central Paris, killing two people and leaving one other person injured, reported France Info radio and Le Figaro newspaper.
The incident, which occurred overnight, took place near the Pont Neuf in Paris. Police had initially spotted the car driving the wrong way and had sought to make checks on it, added French media reports.
Between the first round of voting and Sunday’s runoff, students protested outside the Sorbonne in Paris and other universities across France, venting their frustration with the choice of presidential candidates.
This year’s campaign was dominated by the war in Ukraine, but most of the candidates also tapped into France’s nervous relationship with immigration and secularism.
Embarking on his second term, fresh from two years of COVID-19 policies amid high inflation and the war in Ukraine, Macron is expected to have a tough ride, experts opine.
Calls have already gone up to kickstart what is known in France as a “social third round” of the presidential election — one that takes place in the streets, in the form of protests.
Macron’s most immediate challenge in his second term will be a deeply divided country where political anger could easily boil over into street protests and violence.
Acknowledging those divisions in his victory speech, he said the country is “full of doubts and divisions”.
Macron’s victory is clouded by the fact that his rival — an anti-immigration, nationalist candidate who advocates banning the Islamic headscarf in public and intends to
turn the European Union into an “alliance of European nations” — won more votes than any far-right candidate in the history of France.
More than 12 million people voted for Le Pen, about five million more than her last presidential bid in 2017 — which suggests that her strategy of trying to bring her party into the political mainstream has been largely successful.
The result further poses warnings for the European Union and the U.S.-led NATO military alliance.
In one of the EU’s founding countries, millions voted for the candidate whose campaign platform advocates dismantling the EU from within by suspending its free-travel rules and downgrading the supremacy of EU law.
“This result is [the sign] of a great mistrust against our leaders and against European leaders, a message they cannot ignore,” Le Pen told supporters in her concession speech.
Her strong showing will be seen as a warning in Brussels, which remains rattled by Britain’s vote to leave the EU and is locked in judicial battles with Poland and Hungary over rule-of-law disputes.
During her speech, the National Rally Party chief further struck a combative tone and hinted that she would be leading her troops into battle when voters elect a new French parliament in June.
“It’s a striking victory,” Le Pen told cheering supporters in Boulogne, a suburb of Paris that has historically been her party’s home base.
“We’re more determined than ever,” she added, “and our will to defend French people is even stronger.”
Hinting at potential alliances that could strengthen Le Pen’s party even further, far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, who was knocked out in the election’s first round, called for the formation of a “patriotic bloc” uniting his and Le Pen’s supporters.
All eyes now turn to the parliamentary vote, which is to be held in mid-July and will determine who runs the French parliament.
In a speech on Sunday night, Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader of France’s hard-left La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) party, said: “Monsieur Macron is the worst elected president of the fifth republic. His presidential monarchy survives by default.”
Melenchon hopes his party will get a big enough score for Macron to name him prime minister, which would be a shock.
Mélenchon came a close third in the first round of the presidential election and his camp hopes to capitalize on his success and thwart Macron’s plans.