PARIS — French President-elect Emmanuel Macron will not have much of a honeymoon period as he faces the daunting task of reuniting a troubled and divided nation riven by anxieties about terrorism and chronic unemployment.

Ravaged by a bitter campaign against defeated far right leader Marine Le Pen and without an established party behind him, Mr Macron’s most immediate hurdle will be in June’s legislative elections for France’s Parliament.

His fledgling political movement must now scramble together a majority in the parliamentary elections — which will not be an easy task.

Mr Macron has promised to field candidates in all 577 parliamentary districts, but whether he can do so is unclear as it is unknown how many Socialists will support Mr Macron’s platform to loosen labour rules, make France safer and deepen ties with the European Union.

Already, the election results showed that many people chose not to vote for either candidate. Mr Macron won 66.1 per cent of the vote against 33.9 per cent for Ms Le Pen, final results from the interior ministry showed yesterday. The abstention rate was 25.44 per cent, the highest since the presidential election in 1969. Three million voters left their ballot paper blank and one million spoilt theirs.

“The high abstention rate, despite the threat of the far right, is a sign already of dissatisfaction with the new president,” said left-wing newspaper Liberation in an editorial.

Mr Alex Capri, visiting senior fellow at National University of Singapore’s Business School, said Mr Marcon’s election is not a guarantee of stability or cohesion in France or in the EU, as fundamental issues fuelling populism remains.

These include displacement of jobs by disruptive technologies, long-term erosion of real wages and income, growing disparities in wealth, anger regarding the EU’s failure to control its borders, as well as deep resentment towards the French political elite — which produced Mr Macron.

“If these issues are not addressed, populism and nationalism will come roaring back,” Mr Capri said.

Some analysts predict that Ms Le Pen’s National Front could win as many as 100 seats in the new Parliament, making it a formidable opposition party. Although she was soundly defeated on Sunday, Ms Le Pen still managed a showing that not too long ago would have been unthinkable.

She earned 10.6 million votes, close to twice the number her father, Mr Jean-Marie Le Pen, received when he ran a losing presidential campaign against Mr Jacques Chirac in 2002. The percentage of the vote Ms Le Pen won was the highest share the French had ever given to her party.

This has galvanised her party, with Ms Le Pen’s campaign director, Mr David Rachline, saying the National Front would get a new name to pull in a broader spectrum of supporters.

Another huge challenge that awaits Mr Macron is to prove that he has a robust plan to protect a country still in a state of emergency following a string of Islamist-inspired attacks since 2015 that have killed more than 230 people.

The former banker launched his presidential campaign with a plan to tackle extremist attacks by obliging Internet companies to release encrypted messages. But he was painted as weak and inexperienced on security issues by Ms Le Pen, whose plan to expel individuals on the security-threat list and stamp out Islamic extremism was core to her campaign.

Although the election of Mr Macron has prompted relief and even momentary serenity across the EU, the future stability of the 27-nation bloc is far from certain.

The task for Mr Macron will be to show his detractors, including voters resistant to the EU, that he will follow through on his pledge to fundamentally reform the bloc.

“Pushing through these reforms at EU level could prove politically difficult as other EU partners may want to focus on alternative priorities such as migration and security,” said Mr Robin Huguenot-Noel, policy analyst at the European Policy Centre.

Mr Macron quickly made clear that he understood the magnitude of the tasks before him, including winning many people over. “My responsibility will be to unite all the women and men ready to take on the tremendous challenges which are waiting for us, and to act,” he said. AGENCIES