France’s Election Shouldn’t Have Been This Close

Not so long ago, the war in Ukraine appeared to have made French President Emmanuel Macron a shoo-in for a second term. Polls showed that a majority of French voters trusted him to handle the crisis, and two weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, Macron garnered support from 31 percent of voters surveyed compared with just 18 percent for Marine Le Pen, the far-right candidate  who was in second place. The last time a French candidate enjoyed such a big lead in the run-up to a presidential election was more than three decades ago.

What a difference a few weeks