Europe | Unloved, but respected

Emmanuel Macron bids for re-election as war roils Europe

France’s president seems highly likely to keep his job

|PARIS

IT IS TURNING out to be one of France’s shortest, and strangest, presidential election campaigns in modern times. Emmanuel Macron, the sitting president, had not yet declared that he was running for re-election as The Economist went to press on March 3rd, a day before the deadline. He had been distracted, aides said, by crises: a surge of covid-19 cases in January, and then his vain efforts to persuade Vladimir Putin not to invade Ukraine. His delayed entry means that it will be a mere five-week full-cast campaign, set against the backdrop of war in Europe. Both factors are likely to favour Mr Macron.

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Macron’s moment”

The horror ahead

From the March 5th 2022 edition

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