On Sunday 7th May 2017 the French people voted and elected Emmanuel Macron as their new president. He won the election by 66% and left his opponent Marine Le Pen with only 34% of the votes. Still, that marks a high for Le Pen’s right wing party ‘Front National’.
The turnout for the election was the lowest in 40 years with around 12m people that chose to abstain. But it seems like France united, at least, to stop The National Front as even members of other parties gave their vote to Emmanuel Macron. Macron, who neither belongs to a right nor left wing party but is a centrist and he used to be an Economy Minister. There was a sigh of relief from Europe as with him as president, France will remain a member of the European Union. At 39 years old Macron is France´s youngest president.
The first round of the presidential election in France took place on the 23rd of April but no candidate won the majority and a runoff between the top two candidates was decided. Although the results have been made public, the official statement will be made on Wednesday the 10th of May by the Constitutional Council. After that Macron will take his office on May 14th.
GLOSSARY
To vote (vəʊt) – abstimmen
to elect (ɪˈlekt) – jemanden wählen
Election (ɪˈlekʃən)– die Wahl
opponent (əˈpəʊnənt)– Gegner
To mark a high (mɑ:k / haɪ) – markiert einen Höhepunkt
turnout (ˈtɜ:naʊt)– (hier) die Wahlbeteiligung
abstain (əbˈsteɪn)– sich enthalten
Neither … nor (ˈnaɪto ðəʳ…nɔ:ʳ) – weder…noch
centrist (ˈsentrɪst)– der/die Gemäßigte
Used to be (ju:st) – war einmal
Sigh of relief (saɪ / rɪˈli:f) – ein Seufzer der Erleichterung
to remain (rɪˈmeɪn)– verbleiben
To take place (teɪk pleɪs) – stattfinden
majority (məˈʤɒrəti) – die Mehrheit
runoff (ˈrʌnɒf)– die Stichwah
To make public (meɪk ˈpʌblɪk) – etwas öffentlich bekannt machen
To take office (teɪk ˈɒfɪs) – einen Posten antreten