The Progressive Candidate Just Beat Putin’s “Trump” In French Presidential Election

Emmanuel Macron, of the center-left En Marche! Party, has won France’s presidential election.

Macron won with a resounding 66 percent of the vote over the National Front’s Marine Le Pen. Macron’s victory deals a deciding blow to the populist movement that has emerged as of late with the election of Trump in the United States and the passage of Brexit in the United Kingdom.

According to one French source, 43 percent of those who voted for Macron did so in opposition to Le Pen and her nationalist, anti-immigrant agenda. Le Pen also had to contend with the National Front’s racist and anti-Semitic past, dating back to when her father led the party.

Macron’s win underscored France’s disinterest in a last-minute hacking attack and document leak that occurred on Friday. The attack, believed to be carried out by government agents in Russia, targeted the Macron campaign, much like it did with Hillary in 2016. However, due to a media blackout rule 48 hours before the vote, the media could not cover the leak and it had little to no effect on voting.

Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, tweeted:

Congratulations @EmmanuelMacron. Congratulations to French people for choosing Liberty, Equality and Fraternity over tyranny of fake news.

— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) May 7, 2017

With the rise of Donald Trump, the world has seen what a failed populist movement looks like. While Trump has promised to “Make America Great Again,” he has done little else than enrich his own family and company. France, eager to not make the same mistake that Americans did, dealt a major defeat to Trump, Russia, Le Pen, and isolationism. Congratulations to Macron, the new President of France. En marche!