The Quick and Painful Death of Macronism

And the Victory of Marine Le Pen

The first round of the French legislative election is over, and so is Emmanuel Macron’s revolution; his prime minister and chosen successor will resign, and the “far right” that he and his political class have spent decades telling the public to fear is on the steps of power. Regardless of what happens in the second round of voting, Emmanuel Macron’s presidency effectively ended today. He’s a lame duck and figured hated by his own people.

In less than a decade, Macronism—the idea of pro-European centrism—managed to hold the European project, the EU, and NATO together and even rivaled the United States on the world stage would be the political powerhouse that advances France into the future has ended with a bang and not a whimper. Nationalists and Populists will be the largest or second-largest political party in Western Europe.

Even with his party on the verge of defeat and many of his cabinet members already acknowledging they had lost, Macron didn’t even address his voters on election night. He finally managed to unite France, they all hated him.