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Tag: Emmanuel Macron

  • Osinbajo congratulates French President-elect

    Osinbajo congratulates French President-elect

    Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has congratulated Emmanuel Macron on his election as the next President of France.

    In a congratulatory letter to the president-elect, Osinbajo said he received the news of the election of Macron with satisfaction.

    He noted that under successive governments, the relations between Nigeria and France had blossomed.

    The acting president expressed optimism that the incoming French Government would further strengthen the bond of friendship between both countries.

    Under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari there has been very close collaboration between Nigeria and France in the war against terror, the acting president said.

    He commended the role that France had played in the successes so far recorded in the implementation of the regional initiative against terrorism in Africa.

    Osinbajo said Macron’s election was a source of inspiration, especially for the French people.

    According to him, Macron’s election portends a greater future in which the French Republic will continue to play its active role in boosting relations between Europe and the rest of the world.

    Osinbajo said the Buhari administration “is looking forward to working closely with President-elect Macron to promote international cooperation, advance peace and security.’’

    He also expressed the hope that such relationship would “consolidate mutual trade relations and strengthen economic partnership for the benefit of citizens of both countries’’

    The French on Sunday elected 39-year-old Macron as their president to take over from Mr. Francois Hollande.

    Macron defeated Ms. Marine Le Pen in the second round of the election.

     

  • Osinbajo congratulates France President – Elect

    Osinbajo congratulates France President – Elect

    Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, on Monday congratulated Emmanuel Macron on his election as the next President of France.

    In a congratulatory letter to the President-elect, Prof. Osinbajo said he received the news of the election of the 39-year old Macron with satisfaction, noting that under successive governments, the relations between Nigeria and France had blossomed.

    The Acting President, in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on media and publicity, Laolu Akande, expressed the optimism that the incoming government will further strengthen the bond of friendship between both countries.

    Under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, Osinbajo said that there has been a very close collaboration between Nigeria and France in the war against terror as he commended the role played by France in the successes so far recorded in the implementation of the regional initiative against terrorism.

    He observed that Macron’s election is a source of inspiration especially for the French people and portends a greater future in which the French Republic will continue to play its active role boosting relations with Europe, Africa and the rest of the world.

    The Acting President noted that the Buhari administration is looking forward to working closely with President-elect Macron to promote international cooperation, advance peace and security, consolidate mutual trade relations and strengthen economic partnership for the benefit of citizens of both countries.

  • Macron to visit Merkel in first foreign trip as French president

    Macron to visit Merkel in first foreign trip as French president

    The French president-elect, Emmanuel Macron, plans to visit German Chancellor Angela Merkel shortly after his inauguration, according to Sylvie Goulard, a member of the European Parliament and a close confidante of Macron.
    Macron, who was voted in as president on Sunday with a large majority over Marine Le Pen of the National Front, will visit Merkel as his first foreign trip as France’s head of state, Goulard told French broadcaster CNews.
    Merkel and Macron held a telephone conversation late Sunday after the result was announced, according to Steffen Seibert, Merkel’s spokesman.
    Merkel told Macron that she is “looking forward to trustful cooperation … in the spirit of the traditionally close Franco-German friendship,” Seibert said.
    Macron will officially take over from French President Francois Hollande next Sunday, but an exact date for the meeting between the new president and Merkel has not been set.
    Hollande is expected in Berlin later on Monday for his last official bilateral meeting with Merkel before he leaves office.

  • Police arrest 141 people after post-election trouble

    The Police on Monday said a hundred and forty-one people were arrested in Paris after trouble flared overnight following Emmanuel Macron’s victory in France’s presidential election.

    The authorities said those detained in Menilmontant, a north-eastern district of Paris, were accused of offences ranging from throwing missiles at the police to damaging property.

    The demonstrators were protesting both against Macron – criticized by many on France’s far left as a member of a discredited elite in thrall to global capitalism – and against his defeated far-right nationalist rival, Marine Le Pen.

    Macron beat Le Pen by 66 percent to 34 on a platform of market-friendly reform and closer European integration.

    However, an abstention rate of over 25 per cent, and the fact that more than 11 per cent of those who turned out chose neither candidate, pointed to a high degree of disillusionment with the choices on offer in the runoff.

    The hardline leftist CGT labour union planned a demonstration in the capital later in the day against the kind of liberal economic policies that Macron espouses.

  • Macron elected French president

    Centrist candidate, Emmanuel Macron, has decisively won the French presidential election, defeating far-right candidate, Marine Le Pen.

    Mr. Macron won by 66.06 per cent to 33.94 per cent to become, at 39, the country’s youngest president, the BBC reports.

    Mr. Macron’s win ends the decades-long dominance of the two traditional main left-wing and right-wing parties.

    He said that a new page was being turned in French history.

    “I want it to be a page of hope and renewed trust,” he said.

    Mr. Macron said he had heard “the rage, anxiety and doubt that a lot of you have expressed” and vowed to spend his five years in office “fighting the forces of division that undermine France.”

    He said he would “guarantee the unity of the nation and defend and protect Europe.”

    Mr. Macron’s supporters gathered in their thousands to celebrate outside the Louvre museum in central Paris and their new president later joined them.

    In his speech to the crowd, he said: “Tonight you won, France won. Everyone told us it was impossible, but they don’t know France.”

    But he repeated a number of times that the task facing him and the country was enormous.

    He said: “We have the strength, the energy and the will – and we will not give in to fear.”

  • World leaders react positively to Emmanuel Macron’s election win

    World leaders have reacted positively to Emmanuel Macron’s victory over Marine Le Pen in Sunday’s French presidential elections.

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: “the decision of the French voters is also clearly a vote for Europe.”

    Merkel’s Spokesperson Steffen Seibert, said the Chancellor is looking forward to working with the new president in the spirit of the traditionally close Franco-German friendship.

    “I warmly congratulate @EmmanuelMacron on his success and look forward to working with him on a wide range of shared priorities,” Merkel said.

    Also, British Prime Minister Theresa May in her tweets said: “Hurray President #Macron A hope is haunting Europe.”

    Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni also said: “We congratulate Emmanuel Macron on his victory in the French presidential election.

    “This is a victory for the French people and for European cooperation.”

    Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven in his comment said: “I look forward to working with President-elect Macron to confront the common challenges and seize the common opportunities facing our two democracies.

    “One of the greatest threats facing the world today is radical Islamic terror which has struck Paris, Jerusalem and so many other cities around the world.”

    Also commenting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said: “Congratulations to Emmanuel Macron on his big win today as the next President of France.

    “I look very much forward to working with him!”

    President Donald Trump of the U.S. also said: “Ì look forward to working closely with President-elect Macron in the years ahead as we work together on a progressive agenda to promote international security, increase collaboration in science and technology, and create good, middle class jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.”

    Also, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada said: “congratulations @EmmanuelMacron on your historic election win.

    “We will build even stronger ties between our two great nations.”

    NAN reports that Macron won with between 65 and 66 per cent of the vote, projections published by multiple French media showed.

    Macron, 39, easily beat far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen after a bitter contest pitting his pro-EU liberal platform against her calls for France to close its borders and pull out of the euro single currency.

    He will be the youngest ever president of France, and the first in over a century to be elected by popular vote without the backing of an established political party.

    Macron supporters gathered for a rally in the courtyard of Paris’ Louvre museum cheered wildly as the results came through moments after polls closed at 8:00 pm (1800 GMT).

    Le Pen quickly conceded victory and said she had called Macron to congratulate him.

    “The French have chosen a new president of the republic, and have voted for continuity,” she told a rally of voters in eastern Paris.

    She made it clear, however, that she now saw herself as the leader of the opposition.

    “This second round has set up a great realignment of French politics around the cleavage between patriots and globalizers,” Le Pen, who has slammed Macron as a proponent of “savage globalization,” said.

    President Francois Hollande, under whom Macron served as economy minister for two years, congratulated him more whole-heartedly.

    “His broad victory confirms that a very large majority of our fellow-citizens wanted to rally around the values of the Republic and express their attachment to the European Union and to a France that is open to the world,” the outgoing head of state said.

    Plaudits also came from Europe, where Le Pen’s mounting popularity over the past few months has been viewed with alarm.

    European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker also congratulated president-elect Macron in a letter he posted on Twitter.

    “Happy that the French chose a European future,” he wrote.

    Emmanuel Macron’s presidential win is a “victory for a strong, unified Europe and for the Franco-German friendship,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Twitter.

    The last days of the campaign were marked by an insult-laden debate in which Le Pen proved shaky on facts, cementing Macron’s advantage.

    The final hours of campaigning on Friday night saw a huge leak of emails and documents from the Macron campaign, which denounced a “massive and coordinated” hacking attack.

    News agency AFP reported that prosecutors had launched an investigation.

    Macron now faces the challenge of winning a parliamentary majority for his year-old En Marche! movement.

    Turnout was expected to slightly down on previous polls, as many voters found the choice between Macron’s pro-business, socially liberal programme and Le Pen’s hardline anti-EU, anti-immigration stance unpalatable.

    Macron will formally take over from Hollande on or before May 14.

  • Macron favorite in opinion polls as France elects new president

    Macron favorite in opinion polls as France elects new president

    After a tumultuous election campaign filled with scandal and surprises, the French public began to vote on Sunday on whether a pro-European Union centrist or an anti-EU, anti-immigration far-rightist will lead them for the next five years.

    Opinion polls indicate they will pick Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old ex-economy minister who wants to bridge the left-right divide, resisting an anti-establishment tide that has seen Britons vote to leave the EU and Americans choose Donald Trump as U.S. president.

    But should an upset occur and National Front candidate Marine Le Pen win, the very future of the EU could be on the line.
    Macron, who wants to deregulate the economy and deepen EU integration, has a 23- to 26-percentage-point lead over Le Pen in the opinion polls.
    Forecasts proved accurate for the presidential election’s first round last month, and markets have risen in response to Macron’s widening lead over his rival after a bitter television debate on Wednesday.

    “We increased our equity exposure and added some French stocks after the first round.

    “The major political risk of a Le Pen victory appears to be disappearing,’’ Francois Savary, Chief Investment Officer at Geneva-based fund management firm Prime Partners, said.

    In a campaign that has seen favorites drop out of the race one after the other, Le Pen, who wants to close borders, ditch the euro currency and clamp down on migration, is nevertheless closer to elected power than the far right has ever been in Western Europe since World War Two.

    Even if opinion polls prove accurate and France elects its youngest president ever rather than its first female leader, Macron himself has said he expects no honeymoon period.

    Abstention could be high, and close to 60 per cent of those who plan to vote for Macron say they will do so to stop Le Pen from being elected to lead the euro zone’s second-largest economy rather than because they fully agree with the former banker-turned-politician.

    Sunday’s election will in any case not end the battle between mainstream and more radical policies in France, with parliamentary elections next month equally crucial.

    Once the presidential ballot is over, attention will switch to whether the winner will be able to get a majority in parliament, with one poll this week showing that such a majority was within reach for Macron.

    Much will also depend on both the candidates’ score on Sunday.

    Le Pen’s niece, Marion Marechal-Le Pen, on Thursday told L’Opinion daily that a 40 percent score would already be “a huge victory” for the National Front.

    Whoever wins will spell a new chapter in French politics.

    The major left-wing and right-wing parties — the Socialist Party and The Republicans — that have ruled France for decades both suffered humiliating defeats in the election’s first round.

    The campaign was hit by yet another surprise on Friday night just before the quiet period which forbids politicians from commenting started.

    Macron’s team said a massive hack had dumped emails, documents and campaign-financing information online.

    Pollsters will publish initial estimates at 8 pm (1800 GMT), once all polling stations are closed.

    More than 50,000 police officers will be on duty. Security will be a prime concern in the wake of a series of militant attacks in Paris, Nice and elsewhere in the past few years that have killed more than 230 people.

  • Obama endorses Macron in French campaign

    Obama endorses Macron in French campaign

    Former U.S. President Barack Obama endorsed centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron for France’s presidential election to be held on Sunday.

    Obama in a video message, praised Macron for appealing “to people’s hopes and not their fears”.

    “The French election is very important to the future of France and the values that we care so much about,” Obama said in the message, distributed by Macron’s camp.

    Macron “has stood up for liberal values … He is committed to a better future for the French people. He appeals to people’s hopes and not their fears,” the former president said.

    “I am supporting Emmanuel Macron to lead you forward,” Obama said, concluding his statement with the French title of Macron’s party “En Marche!” (Onwards!) and “Vive la France!”.

    Macron is widely seen as the favorite to beat the National Front’s Marine Le Pen in Sunday’s runoff vote.

  • Le Pen, Macron spar as French presidential race narrows slightly

    Le Pen, Macron spar as French presidential race narrows slightly

    French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen took a fishing-boat ride on Thursday as two polls suggested the underdog had made a more impressive start to the last lap of campaigning than the favourite, centrist Emmanuel Macron.

    Since on Sunday’s opening ballot sent them into a two-way runoff on May 7.

    The battle has intensified, notably on the public relations front, between two candidates who both said their adversary will ruin the country.

    A daily Opinion poll showed Macron still clear favourite.

    However, his predicted score, which has almost always been 60 per cent or higher over the past few months, dipped to 59 per cent for the first time since mid-March.

    A separate Elabe poll also signaled a potential danger for the favourite.

    it said one out of two people surveyed considered Le Pen’s last-leg campaign had begun well, while for Macron that positive view of latest developments was a slimmer 43 per cent.

    The progression of Macron and Le Pen to the second round on April 23 sent the euro sharply higher and lifted French stocks.

    Investors fear Le Pen’s anti-EU policies could lead to a break-up of the bloc and its single currency.

    However, they are following polls which have shown that of all her main opponents, Macron has the largest predicted winning margin over her.

    Macron, a centrist ex-banker, took to Twitter to deride the National Front leader, whose fishing boat outing in jeans and a white jacket won her extensive TV coverage for a second straight day.

    Flanked by fans and fishermen in the Port de Grau port west of Marseille, Le Pen said that she would defend all seafarers and all endangered sectors against invasive European Union regulations.

    Hitting out at Macron, she said: “Let me warn you, that man will destroy our entire social and economic structure.”

    The independent centrist, a 39-year-old who did a stint as a minister in the outgoing Socialist government before breaking away to launch a cross-partisan political movement, mocked his 48-year-old foe in turn on the Twitter.

    “Madame Le Pen is gone fishing.

    “Enjoy the outing.

    “The exit from Europe that she is proposing will spell the end of French fisheries,” he said.

    The skirmishing has intensified with the countdown to May 7.