Photo/Illutration Supporters celebrate French President Emmanuel Macron’s victory on April 24 in Paris. (AP Photo)

Britain’s ruling Conservative Party lost the July 1945 general election in the final stages of World War II. It cost Prime Minister Winston Churchill his job, even though he had been a dominant force behind the Allies’ then-imminent victory in the war.

However, British voters preferred the Labor Party for prioritizing domestic welfare.

Soviet leader Josef Stalin, whose nation was a member of the Allies, apparently saw in Churchill’s election defeat the shabbiness of Western democracy, according to Edvard Radzinsky, the author of “Stalin: The First In-depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia’s Secret Archives.”

Perhaps Stalin felt like sneering at the fickleness of popular will.

Had incumbent French President Emmanuel Macron lost Sunday’s presidential election, how would Russian President Vladimir Putin have reacted?

I have no doubt he would have flashed a huge grin.

Though challenger Marine Le Pen, said to be conciliatory toward Putin, made significant gains, she ultimately lost.

Macron has been in dialogue with Putin while imposing economic sanctions on Russia. For this, Macron could be expected to keep playing the leading role in maintaining European unity.

In the election, however, people’s anxieties about everyday life must have influenced the nature of the race.

Popular discontent smoldered over the government’s attempts to increase the fuel tax, and the rising prices of goods due to the crisis in Ukraine acted as a strong headwind against the Macron administration.

And Macron himself, a former investment banker, was stuck with the image of “favoring the rich.”

I think many voters held their noses, so to speak, to cast their ballots for Macron because they could readily see that should Le Pen become president, France would ease its sanctions against Russia, and European unity would fall into disarray.

Watching Russia today, I am fully convinced that where there is no free speech, there is no chance of challenging and stopping an out-of-control dictator.

Under a free and democratic system, popular will does swing wildly, but it is always possible to correct the course.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 26

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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