French President Emmanuel Macron comfortably won reelection to a second term Sunday, according to polling agencies’ projections.
In the midst of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the result offered the European Union the reassurance of leadership stability in the bloc’s only nuclear-armed power and was immediately hailed by France’s allies.
A second five-year term for the centrist Macron spares France and its allies the seismic upheaval of a wartime shift of power to Macron’s populist challenger Marine Le Pen, who quickly acknowledged her defeat Sunday night but still appeared on course for a best-ever showing for her fiercely nationalist far-right policies.