Will Macron see off the populist threat?

Emmanuel Macron beat Marine Le Pen in the first round of the French presidential election. But can he beat populism for good, asks Emily Hohler.

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Marine Le Pen: Macron is my ideal opponent, she says
(Image credit: Credit: dpa picture alliance / Alamy Stock Photo)

Emmanuel Macron, 39, a former Socialist economy minister under Franois Hollande with a background in investment banking, launched his centrist and pro-European political movement, En Marche!, just one year ago. Now he stands poised to become the next president of France. He won 23.8% of the vote in the first round of the election on 23 April, while the far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen took 21.5%.

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Emily Hohler
Politics editor

Emily has worked as a journalist for more than thirty years and was formerly Assistant Editor of MoneyWeek, which she helped launch in 2000. Prior to this, she was Deputy Features Editor of The Times and a Commissioning Editor for The Independent on Sunday and The Daily Telegraph. She has written for most of the national newspapers including The Times, the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, The Evening Standard and The Daily Mail, She interviewed celebrities weekly for The Sunday Telegraph and wrote a regular column for The Evening Standard. As Political Editor of MoneyWeek, Emily has covered subjects from Brexit to the Gaza war.

Aside from her writing, Emily trained as Nutritional Therapist following her son's diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes in 2011 and now works as a practitioner for Nature Doc, offering one-to-one consultations and running workshops in Oxfordshire.