Macron win shows up governability gap in France

London

EMMANUEL Macron, the independent, centrist candidate, was elected on Sunday as the eighth president of France's almost six-decade-old Fifth Republic. While there is significant relief, in many quarters, that he decisively beat far right contender Marine Le Pen, the country is in unchartered territory after the first final round presidential election in the country's modern history that neither of the parties of mainstream centre-right, Republicans, or centre-left, Socialists, managed to qualify.

A key concern, now, centres around how effectively Mr Macron will be able to govern. At 39, he is the youngest president by far in the Fifth Republic, and his new political movement - En Marche! (Forward!) - currently has no seats in the legislature which is presently dominated by Socialists and Republicans. In January, Mr Macron announced En Marche! would try to field candidates in all 577 constituencies in the forthcoming legislative ballots on June 11 and 18, but the prospects of the upstart movement securing a working majority (even potentially in an alliance with key blocs of lawmakers from one or more other parties) are highly unclear.