VIVE LA FRANCE (2017-05-08)

Emmanuel Macron's victory in the French Presidential elections is a sign of hope for France and for Europe. He also - and rightly so - puts many politicians in Europe and  America to shame. He did not win by making concessions to the populists - as Dutch politicians did in the parliamentary elections in March - but by speaking out openly and convincingly for a united Europe. As Anne Applebaum - see attached article - wrote: "Macron can only succeed if he accepts that this is now the essence of politics in Western democracies: An open fight against the toxic appeal of false promises and divisive, nativist nostalgia." Instead of following the bad and destructive examples of Trump in America, Theresa May in Britain, Orban in Hungary and Kashinski in Poland, President Macron may well make France the constructive force for relaunching European unification; from the political centre and in the spirit of Robert Schuman in 1950.