Back in May, those running the European Union breathed a great sigh of relief as the French presidential election results poured in and the charismatic, 39-year-old centrist Emmanuel Macron easily beat back the xenophobic populist challenge of the far-right Front National and its leader, Marine Le Pen.
In the end, Macron won more than twice the number of votes, having rallied his forces around the idea that he was an outside challenger to the corrupt French political class. His new party, En Marche, appealed to voters fatigued by conventional coalitions that had become virtually indistinguishable once in office.
