France’s re-elected president prepares for a tough second term

STANDING BEFORELREM the illuminated backdrop of the Eiffel Tower on election night, made history, and then a promise. In a run-off vote on April 24th that defied modern precedent, the 44-year-old centrist president was re-elected with 58.5% of the vote. He roundly defeated the nationalist-populist Marine Le Pen, who secured 41.5%. Mr Macron is now the only sitting president with a governing majority since the Fifth Republic was established in 1958 to by direct universal suffrage.It was a personal triumph for Mr Macron, who has run for election only twice: each time for the presidency, each time with success. His fledgling political party, now called La République en Marche (), was set up just six years ago. The last time the French re-elected an incumbent—Jacques Chirac in 2002—Mr Macron was a student intern in Nigeria, studying at the Ecole Nationale d’Administration.