A modern French Revolution: Emma Nichols discusses the implications of Emmanuel Macron's ascent to power in France.

• Author: Nichols, Emma

When Emmanuel Macron founded his own independent political movement in April 2016, few rated his chances of winning the French presidency. One year on, President Macron's party boasts an absolute majority in the French lower house, and has begun implementing an ambitious domestic reform package, as well as a packed policy agenda in both European and foreign affairs. President Macron has many challenges to face and tightropes to walk. If tougher reforms are frontloaded earlier in his presidency, as his government is doing, they may begin to bear fruit just in time for the next presidential election in 2022.

When Emmanuel Macron founded his own independent political movement in April 2016, few rated his chances of winning his bid for the French presidency. One year on, President Macron's party boasts an absolute majority in the National Assembly, the French lower house, albeit following a legislative election with the lowest voter participation rate since 1958. How did this rising star of French politics manage it? What does he hope to achieve on the domestic, European and international scenes, and will he manage to do so while keeping French voters on side? Was President Macron's victory based on merit, circumstance or both?

Emmanuel Macron certainly campaigned hard to win the French presidency, but it cannot be denied that his road to the Elysee Palace was made smoother by the weakness of his political opposition. The political centre, normally fought over by the centre-left Socialist Party and centre-right The Republicans party, was left wide open for Macron to occupy. This desert in the political centre was the result of the unexpected results of the primaries held to choose presidential nominees for both major parties. Unlike American voters, France has not been accustomed to party primary processes--this was only the second time the Republicans chose their candidate through a primary process, and the first for the Socialist Party.

Both primaries gave French voters the chance to express their dissatisfaction with the status quo: their choices of presidential candidates displayed an appetite for change. On the right, expected contenders Alain Juppe and former President Nicolas Sarkozy were eliminated in favour of a relative outsider, former Prime Minister Francois Fillon, who campaigned on a platform of traditional conservative and Catholic values. Fillon, while initially predicted to win the presidency in a landslide, succumbed to the fallout from a scandal over his wife's work, or suspected lack thereof, while employed as his parliamentary assistant. Fillon broke his promise to voters and did not resign once put under judicial investigation, causing an exodus of his campaign staff and voters alike.

On the left, expected contenders former Prime Minister Manuel Vails and Arnaud Montebourg lost out to the more radical Benoit Hamon, a candidate who endorsed...