The French went to the polls on May 7 to pick their new president.  After the surprise of Britain’s Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump as US president, just what kind of politician – and politics – France chooses is of huge interest to many, not just those inside Europe.

Macron’s victory shows cheap xenophobia can be beaten.  Confront racism, oppose economic isolation, offer hope – Macron won because he built an alliance around this message. Britain’s progressives must do the same.

Macron confronted racism, stigmatised it, and offered hope. He constructed an alliance of the freemarket elite and left voters on that basis. And however vacuous and unachievable his reform programme may be, it has given French democracy, Europeanism and globalism another chance.

https://youtu.be/sy3UgdxNizY

Based on Theguardian and The Telegraph.