The French presidential election proves France is more divided than ever

The Macron-Le Pen face-off didn't kill the traditional left-right divide. Instead, it's back with a vengeance.

Emmanuel Macron speaks in front of The Louvre
(Image credit: David Ramos/Getty Images)

Emmanuel Macron, a centrist and political quasi-neophyte, has been elected president of France against populist leader Marine Le Pen. While these candidates' positions are diametrically opposed, they agree on one thing: They are sui generis political figures whose performance hails a fundamental realignment of French politics. And most commentators agree with them: We have all noticed now that the pressures of globalization and technology are splitting advanced Western economies into underclass and overclass, and that this rift scrambles the cards politically. Both Brexit and Donald Trump were "right-wing" phenomena propelled to victory thanks to the votes of working-class natives whose traditional allegiance lay with the left.

Except that closer scrutiny of the data shows that, when it comes to France at least, what is happening is not so much a transcending of the old left-right divide as a realignment within each side of this great divide.

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Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry is a writer and fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. His writing has appeared at Forbes, The Atlantic, First Things, Commentary Magazine, The Daily Beast, The Federalist, Quartz, and other places. He lives in Paris with his beloved wife and daughter.