French-Jewish leaders expressed relief after incumbent French President Emmanuel Macron beat Marine Le Pen in France's presidential election on Sunday.
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"It's a relief to see that Marine Le Pen was blocked from reaching power – but this time we were seriously worried," said Francis Kalifat, head of the French Jewish body CRIF, Haaretz reported.
"We were concerned because some people… had made ambiguous statements, refusing to call on their supporters to vote for Macron," Kalifat added.
National Rally leader Le Pen's 41.5% was the highest ever reached by a far-right party in France.
Samuel Lejoyeux, head of the Union of Jewish Students of France, said that while he was happy with the results, it was no victory.
The main thing is that Marine Le Pen and her racist and antisemitic project have been kept out of the Élysée Palace, but the progress she has made is frightening," Lejoyeux warned.
Many Jewish voters were wary of Le Pen despite her efforts to change her image – which were referred to by some as "de-demonization," according to Haaretz.
Jewish leaders further argued that the only way to stop the rise of the far Right was to address the problems that drove so many to vote for Le Pen.
"Le Pen's share of the vote was very high – and this means there is a lot of work to do," said Kalifat.
Macron's Forward Party will head to the polls again in June for parliamentary elections, for which far-right figures like Le Pen vowed to build up their groups to win, Haaretz reported.
"A new battle begins now," Kalifat said.
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
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