Macron survived Le Pen. Europe exhaled but didn’t relax. Populism doesn’t vanish. It waits, adapts, sharpens.
The runoff revealed a continent splitting down the same seams as America: nationalism dressed as sovereignty, resentment dressed as democracy.
The result. Macron stays, but only just. Le Pen surged.
The lesson. Fascism doesn’t need to win outright to win momentum.
The mirror. Europe debates its fractures in public. America lives them daily.