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President Macron.

Well, to the surprise of nobody, Emannuel Macron defeated Marine Le Pen to become France’s youngest leader since Napoleon. Time will tell whether he turns out to be France’s Justin Trudeau or, as seems far more likely, France’s Ed Miliband. His grandiose promises are unlikely to be fulfilled but the voters were desperate. It was a case of “Anyone but Le Pen” and he turned up at exactly the right time to be Anyone. His achievement, nonetheless, is astonishing. Not so much because he has never held office and had to create a new political party before be could even run. No, more because when this record came out, he wasn’t even born.

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