between “shock” and “seum”, the “worried” look of the foreign press on the election in France

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“If François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac were still alive, they would not come back”: that’s how La Vanguardia, in Catalonia, sums up the first round of the presidential election in France, which therefore sees a new Marine Le Pen – Emmanuel Macron duel at the polls on April 24, 2022 – and which also echoes the collapse of bipartisanship in Spain these last years. 45 years of right-left alternation, and then a political landscape that splits in which the extreme right takes more and more space.

“The PS hits rock bottomsaid on his side El Paíshistorically close to the socialists, and “few think it will survive in its original form“. Same observation on the conservative side, in Spain and elsewhere. Valérie Pécresse’s score is so low says The Guardianin Great Britain, that “that’s the biggest shock of the evening. This risks leading to the implosion of his party and France could in fact find itself in a unique position in Europe, a country without a classic right-wing party..”

>> Presidential 2022: follow the reactions to the first round in our live

The fact that Marine Le Pen comes in second place, with a much smaller gap than five years ago against Emmanuel Macron, worries France’s partners. Germany in particular. For the Tagesspiegel, Marine Le Pen in the Elysée chair, it would be a radical shift and the end of European unity: on sanctions against Hungary and Russia, on the green climate pact, on the ‘NATO. Even the historic Franco-German friendship could suffer. Le Pen elected, says the Berlin daily, it would be “a catastrophe comparable to that of Brexit“.

Same tone for Suddeutsche Zeitung who sees “France, the continent’s only nuclear power, has a permanent seat on the UN Security Council“, on the verge of being led by “radical europhobes”.

To understand this dread, it suffices to compare the gulf which separates the results of this first round in France to those of the German legislative elections in September.
Ecologists: 4% in France, 15% in Germany. Social Democrats: 2% in France, 26% in Germany. Far right: 33% in France, 10% in Germany.

Many other newspapers, Monday, April 11 denounce the true-false normality of the RN candidate: “Has Marine le Pen really become a moderate politician?” “If you look at his program and his statements, the answer is no.” say it NRC Handelsblad in the Nederlands.

“Marine Le Pen is toxic” outbids the Guardian. “His project, will involve a constitutional coup (…), his economic program is impossible to implement. His election (…) would unleash racist demons (…) and divide France”.

In any case, a challenge is looming for Emmanuel Macron, who finds himself “facing the fight of his life“, Write the FinancialTimes. He “must now fight”, says the Frankfurter Alluguemeine Zeitung. The German daily explains that the French president combines handicaps: he no longer has the advantage of novelty, he has not gone as far as he hoped economically and he has above all “failed to reconcile the French”.

In Italy, questioned by the Repubblicathe most French of Italian politicians, Enrico Letta chooses the camp of optimism: “In the clash between sovereignists and pro-Europeans”he said, “it is those who believe in a more united and stronger Europe and not those who want to break it who win despite everything“.

But it would probably be more appropriate to conclude with the American magazine Foreign Policy which highlights this word born in working-class neighborhoods and passed into everyday language, this word which perfectly sums up the feeling of dissatisfaction and the malaise that affects all social classes. This morning, according to the magazine, France “has the seum“.


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