As people wait to see who will be confirmed the winner of the U.S. presidential election, politicians and analysts in France discuss the ongoing process and outcome of the vote, but especially its future impact on the relationship between the two countries.
The U.S. election is all over the news in France and, since Tuesday, the French media have been covering the vote extensively.
The uncertainty around the outcome is widely commented on, especially since final results were still pending more than 24 hours after polling stations closed.
Jean-Claude Beaujour, a lawyer and vice president of France-Ameriques, an association which promotes friendship between France and the United States, says people in France have a hard time understanding that in the United States, each of the 50 states has different legislation to organize the vote. In addition, he said, the U.S. is seen as the country of Google, the Silicon Valley, with a technological edge and that it is hard to believe that the country does not have a better and faster way of processing the election results to know who won.
After four years of a tumultuous relationship between U.S. President Donald Trump and France’s Emmanuel Macron, officials in Paris say that regardless of who is sworn in as the next U.S. president, a fresh start is needed for both countries.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian says it is up to the American people to decide who will be president and that France will work with whoever is elected and the new administration in Washington. He stressed that Europe has been reaffirming its sovereignty over the past four years and that there will be no going back to the previous situation. Therefore, he added, a new transatlantic relationship must be built based on a new partnership.
As of Thursday, President Emmanuel Macron had not commented on any possible outcome of the U.S. vote.
