French President Emmanuel Macron sets out on his second term in a deeply divided country.
Macron was reelected on Sunday, beating his far-right challenger Marine Le Pen by a 16-point margin, but voting day polling shows a strong polarization between the two camps, with clear dividing lines according to how old voters are, where they live and how they manage financially.
Macron did better in more densely populated areas, winning over 70 percent of the vote in Paris, for example, while Le Pen was stronger in rural communities and thousands of smaller constituencies scattered across France, in her northeastern and southern strongholds as well as in overseas territories.
There was a stark divide between voters who say they struggle financially at the end of each month and those who don’t. Some 59 percent of the former group voted for Le Pen, while Macron won a two-thirds majority among the latter.
As in the April 10 first-round vote, Macron owes much to the loyalty of older voters, who not only backed him in large numbers but who were also the age group with the highest turnout.
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