France’s New President And Culture
France’s cultural sector has breathed a sigh of relief after centrist Emmanuel Macron became elected president of France on Sunday, making the 39-year-old the youngest president in French history. He won with 66.1% of the vote, over 33.9% for far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, making him the eighth president of the Fifth Republic. The decision of Macron to make his victory speech to his supporters in front of I.M. Pei’s glass pyramid at the Louvre, a one-time royal palace turned museum, indicated a bridging of history and culture and entailed unprecedented security in the Louvre’s grounds. The pro-European founder of the En Marche! movement has promised to bring a youthful “revolution†to France. Macron’s sensitivity to the arts is reflected by how he studied the piano for 10 years at the Conservatoire of Amiens and wrote three unpublished novels.
