Guernsey's External Relations Lead in France to see Macron re-elected

Monday 25 April 2022

Guernsey’s nearest mainland neighbour, France, yesterday convincingly re-elected its centrist President, Emmanuel Macron, against his far right challenger, Marine Le Pen.

Deputy Jonathan Le Tocq, the States’ External Relations Lead, was in France watching election night unfold and spoke to Express as Mr Macron became the first sitting President in 20 years to be re-elected.

Nationally, Mr Macron secured 59% of votes and Ms Le Pen 41%.

VIDEO: French President Emmanuel Macron is set to begin efforts to unite a deeply divided nation after winning re-election on Sunday in a battle against rival Marine Le Pen that saw the far right come its closest yet to taking power pic.twitter.com/HKGH3JiAHo

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) April 25, 2022

WATCH: Emmanuel Macron became the first President since Jacques Chirac to secure a second term. 

Manche, the department in Normandy nearest the Bailiwick, reflected the national picture with Mr Macron winning 60% and Ms Le Pen 40%. Meanwhile, Brittany voted two-to-one in favour of Mr Macron. In Ille-et-Vilaine, the department which includes Saint Malo, Mr Macron won 71% of votes, his best performance outside Paris.

Ms Le Pen was defeated in all mainland regions except Hauts-de-France in the far north and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur in the south-east, but she also won in Corsica and in all of France’s overseas territories.

The participation rate was the lowest in the final round of a presidential election for more than 50 years and more than three million voters returned spoilt or blank papers.

In his victory speech at the Eiffel Tower, Mr Macron said he would be a “president for all”.

"An answer must be found to the anger and disagreements that led many of our compatriots to vote for the extreme right," he said. "It will be my responsibility and that of those around me."

Conceding defeat, Ms Le Pen said she had scored “a victory in itself” having increased her share of the vote since the last election in 2017, when she won 34%. She said she would continue her political fight against Mr Macron’s “disdain for the French people”.

Pictured: Saint Malo in Brittany, popular with Channel Islanders, proved to be a stronghold for Emmanuel Macron as he won 71% of the vote. 

Deputy Le Tocq, who speaks French fluently, consistently advocates deepening the Bailiwick’s relationship with France at national and regional level.

His e mail signature includes the title Ministre des Affaires Étrangères & Constitutionelles – broadly, the French translation of his role as the States’ Lead for External Relations and Constitutional Affairs.

Deputy Le Tocq was with family and friends yesterday near his holiday home in Pons in Charente-Maritime, where Mr Macron won 56% of votes and Ms Le Pen 44%.

He also spent time over the weekend in Bordeaux in Gironde, which voted for Mr Macron by 61% to 39%.

Pictured: On Saturday, Deputy Jonathan Le Tocq was in Bordeaux, above, before returning to his holiday home in Pons yesterday and watching election events unfold with family, friends and neighbours.

Deputy Le Tocq’s election observations 

“This is the first time we have been in France on final round election day.

"It is certainly interesting to observe people’s feelings and hear their opinions in the largely rural, traditional viticultural area where we are staying, as well as in the great city of Bordeaux itself where we spent 24 hours yesterday.

"Overall, the atmosphere seems muted. A good proportion of folk we have spoken to in social environments expressed strong disengagement, several saying they intended to submit papiers blancs (blank voting slips) and that national politics, if not international politics, had perdu la tête (gone mad) and they had lost faith in democracy."

Pictured: Deputy Jonathan Le Tocq has led the Bailiwick's external relations for several years - since 2016 as the States' External Relations Lead. 

"The scene was different in Paris when I visited at the beginning of the month, although not dramatically so.

"My friends and contacts in Paris are, in the main, either 20- or 30-something graduates working for the government, Ville de Paris, the OECD or similar - or older folk like myself who are members of l’Assemblée National, le Sénat or some sort of government advisor.

"Naturally, these folk all had opinions and seemed more engaged, but - and it’s a big but - even though they expressed, almost to a man, the desire that Macron should win, they also acknowledged that it would be increasingly difficult for him to form a stable government, unless, as some indicated, it was far more right-leaning."

Pictured: The National Assembly, where President Emmanuel Macron currently has a majority, but that may change soon with parliamentary elections being held on 12 and 19 June.

"Les Girondins (the people who live in Bordeaux and around the banks of the Gironde estuary) - of the ones we met, and certainly those who are our neighbours - seem decidedly right-leaning.

"Not exactly Le Pen voters, but certainly a surprising number sympathetic to the Union Populaire Républicaine party led by François Asselineau. Of course, he’s not in the presidential running, but the party slogan « L'union du peuple pour rétablir la démocratie » and strong anti-EU, Frexit stance is something which many here seem to espouse in the small towns and communes far removed from Paris and les grandes villes."

Pictured: Deputy Jonathan Le Tocq took this photo outside the Hôtel de Ville in Blaye, a commune in Gironde. The election posters promote Emmanuel Macron as "for us all" and Marine Le Pen as "for all the French people".

"There is a general view around here that politics, especially national politics, has become the domain of an elite, professional urban class, out of touch with the largely rural, non-urban French. Even more so, there is a view that a greater degree of decision-making should be done locally, not in far away Paris or Brussels, and when I have spoken of our island’s government there is general admiration if not envy.

"Life is rarely binary, more often shades of grey. So the next few weeks and months will be crucial in observing how Emmanuel Macron - the remarkable centrist who seems to have bucked the trend for a second time - seeks to build consensus and unify this great nation."

Bravo & félicitations à @EmmanuelMacron pour sa réélection comme président de notre proche voisin la République Française. La tâche des 5 prochaines années sera considérable; @Govgg reste prêt à poursuivre des relations constructives dans l'intérêt mutuel de nos peuples.

— Jonathan Le Tocq ???????? (@letocq) April 25, 2022

Pictured: In a tweet of congratulations to Emmanuel Macron, Deputy Jonathan Le Tocq wrote that the States "remain ready to pursue constructive relations for the mutual benefit of our peoples".

"It matters very much who our neighbours are and how they are governed in terms of our ability to relate well, trade appropriately and live peaceably. We need, at the very least, to attempt to build a constructive rapport with the French government, nationally and regionally.

"The cross-party Groupes d’études des Îles Anglo-normandes in l’Assemblée Nationale and le Sénat (similar to the Channel Islands All-Party Parliamentary Group in Westminster) which we have fought hard to establish in the last few years are vital in assisting us to ensure we have some French political friends who understand our interests and can speak up for us.

"It is much harder, if not impossible, to start seeking to establish such understanding when we’re in the middle of a crisis.

"It is exactly the same with ordinary, next-door neighbour issues. It's better to build bridges early. It doesn’t guarantee that no disputes will arise, but it gives us the best chance of resolving them."

Pictured: Marine Le Pen had said that she would not contest another presidential election if she lost yesterday and it is possible that leadership of the far right will now pass to a new generation, such as Jordan Bardella and Ms Le Pen's niece, Marion Maréchal.