Germany heaved a sigh of relief after liberal candidate Emmanuel Macron won France’s Presidential election. Chancellor Angela Merkel had emphatically thrown her support behind Macron against his far-right and anti-EU challenger Marine Le Pen, aware that the very existence of the European Union was at stake in the vote.
Markel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert writing on Twitter said Macron’s win is a victory for a strong and united Europe and for French-German friendship. Macron shares Merkel’s commitment to the EU bloc, which has been deeply shaken by Britain’s decision to quit. The president-in-waiting, who positions himself as a centrist, has also campaigned on the type of sweeping changes to the French economy that Berlin had long championed and implemented more than a decade ago.