Central France holds — for now — WSJ

As French President Emmanuel Macron won a surprisingly comfortable re-election victory over Marine Le Pen, leaders across the West breathed sighs of relief. But a closer look at the results reveals cause for concern and raises an intriguing question: what Mr Macron has done – create a new center party and lead it to victory – can happen elsewhere, even in the states -United ?

The 2012 French presidential election was the last traditional competition between centre-left socialists, the heirs of François Mitterrand, and centre-right republicans, the heirs of Charles de Gaulle. François Hollande, the socialist, won 28.6% of the vote in the first round, followed by Republican Nicolas Sarkozy with 27.2%. Taken together, these center parties had a large majority of the electorate. The far-right National Front of Marine Le Pen obtained 17.9%, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the far left, 11.1%, accumulating for only 29%.