France's Macron Must Win Big Now To Have A Chance Of Fulfilling Pledges

PARIS (Reuters) - Emmanuel Macron's camp should perhaps keep the champagne on ice a little longer. The young independent centrist's qualification on Sunday for the runoff of France's presidential election in two weeks' time will certainly bring a sigh of relief in European capitals and financial markets; opinion polls suggest he will beat his far-right rival Marine Le Pen with ease. But to have a real chance of implementing the reform of France's economy and politics that he wants, he needs a victory big enough to enlist popular figures from established parties in the parliamentary election that follows in June. According to an almost-complete count, Macron beat Le Pen by around 24 percent to 22 percent. It may have been a huge triumph for a 39-year-old never elected to public office who was virtually unknown in France before becoming economy minister three years ago, and only founded his political movement last year. But it was also, in a packed field, the lowest score of any first-round winner since 2002. Then, it was Jacques Chirac who scored only 20 percent - but benefited from a joint effort by all mainstream parties to block his National Front challenger, Le Pen's father Jean-Marie, to secure a crushing win in the runoff by 82 percent to 18. This time, the mainstream conservatives and Socialists also quickly urged their supporters to vote to block Marine Le Pen. "He's going to adopt a rallying posture just like (former president Jacques) Chirac did in 2002," said Francois Kraus of pollsters Ifop. But in 2017, the endorsements of conservatives and Socialists combined accounted for only 26 percent of votes. Analysts say that if Macron fails to win more than 60 percent in the second round, he may find it hard to reassure a divided country that he has what it takes to reform the euro zone's second-largest economy, which is only starting to pick up speed after five years of anemic growth. Then, in turn, he might struggle to turn his promise to transcend traditional party divides into a working majority for his En Marche!