\n French President Emmanuel Macron faces a daunting range of tasks after defeating far-right leader Marine Le Pen and winning a new term at the Elysee Palace.\n<\/p>\n
\n AFP looks at five challenges ahead for the centrist, who was France's youngest ever president when elected in 2017.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Mending divisions -\n<\/p>\n
\n After a first term in office that featured the most violent anti-government demonstrations in decades -- the so-called \"Yellow Vest\" protests -- Macron will face a challenge bringing France together.\n<\/p>\n
\n His programme was radically different to Le Pen's and the question now is how to reconcile their two visions of the future, which share relatively little common ground.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I know that for many of our citizens who voted for the far-right the anger and disagreement that led them to make this choice must also receive a response,\" he said. \"That will be my responsibility and for those around me.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n French experts have warned about the risk of protests from people who do not feel represented by Macron, including those who voted for him simply to block Le Pen.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The electoral campaign has not served as the pressure-release valve or as a cathartic purge of tensions across the country,\" political scientist and pollster Jerome Fourquet told Le Figaro newspaper.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"There is reason to fear that these will not be released in parliament but in the street,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Cost of living -\n<\/p>\n
\n The priority for French people since late last year has been the rising cost of living, which has left many struggling to make ends meet.\n<\/p>\n
\n Official annual inflation was clocked at 4.5 percent last month -- lower than other developed countries thanks to subsidies to keep electricity, gas and fuel prices down.\n<\/p>\n
\n Macron knows there is growing discontent. On the campaign trail, voters repeatedly told him they were worried about filling up their cars and shopping baskets.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"It hasn't changed since September. It's the priority for French people,\" Bruno Jeanbart from the Opinionway polling group told CNews late Sunday.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"It has only increased with recent events, particularly with the crisis in Ukraine, and it will be a major issue for the newly re-elected president.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n - War in Ukraine -\n<\/p>\n
\n Macron led Western diplomatic efforts to reach out to Russian President Vladimir Putin after Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, but their talks have broken down in recent weeks.\n<\/p>\n
\n Macron said he had reduced his conversations after the discovery of alleged Russian war crimes in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, near Kiev, in early April.\n<\/p>\n
\n Under pressure from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, France has stepped up arms deliveries to Ukraine, announcing the delivery of state-of-the-art Caesar artillery cannons last week.\n<\/p>\n
\n Macron made sure Zelensky was one of the first people he spoke to on Sunday night.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Congratulations to Emmanuel Macron, a real friend of Ukraine, for his re-election,\" Zelensky tweeted.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Government and a majority -\n<\/p>\n
\n One of Macron's biggest short-term challenges will be naming what is expected to be a new government, with Prime Minister Jean Castex announcing his intention to resign.\n<\/p>\n
\n Macron has asked Castex to remain in post for at least this week and perhaps longer, while he seeks to assemble a new cabinet ahead of parliamentary elections in June.\n<\/p>\n
\n Macron has said he would like the prime minister's successor to be a woman, and he intends to give the next premier new responsibility for \"environmental planning\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Experienced and ultra-loyal Labour Minister Elisabeth Borne is widely tipped as the frontrunner, though Macron is known to keep such decisions close to his chest.\n<\/p>\n
\n Opposition parties are already eyeing June's parliamentary elections as a chance to thwart Macron's agenda, which includes raising the retirement age, welfare reform, and more tax cuts.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"On June 12 and 19 another world is still possible,\" leading left-winger Jean-Luc Melenchon said Sunday night, in a message echoed by Le Pen and others.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Environmental programme -\n<\/p>\n
\n Although the environment is among French voters' top three concerns, the climate crisis was often a subject on the sidelines of public debate during the campaign.\n<\/p>\n
\n Melenchon drew wide support from young people in the first round of voting on April 10, having put the fight against the climate change at the heart of his programme.\n<\/p>\n
\n Macron has played up his own green ambitions in recent weeks in a bid to reach this electorate, promising that France would be the first major country to abandon fossil fuels.\n<\/p>\n
\n He vowed to make France \"a great ecological nation\" Sunday night, though many campaigners are sceptical about his willingness to make the hard choices needed to reduce emissions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
French President Emmanuel Macron faces a daunting range of tasks after defeating far-right leader Marine Le Pen and winning a new term at the Elysee Palace. AFP looks at five challenges ahead for the centrist, who was France's youngest ever president when elected in 2017. - Mending divisions - After a first term in office […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-91275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n