Like Natalie Nougayrède, I too felt a huge sense of relief that Emmanuel Macron had made it through to the second round of the French presidential election (The nightmare of a Le Pen win, 25 April). But there is clearly something wrong with a French system which so easily could have selected the far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who was only a few percentage points behind Macron. I agree that anti-establishment sentiment that is indifferent to the outcome it produces (Brexit/Trump) results in chaos and nihilism, not renewal. A Mélenchon v Le Pen vote-off would have been a disaster for France and for Europe.

Stan Labovitch

Windsor, Berkshire

• Here’s why I voted for Macron in the French presidential elections: I see myself as part of this new generation of French voters that believes in free trade and responsible public spending, while (as Macron famously says, “en même temps”) setting up regulations to control globalisation. These voters recognise the need for reforms and more flexible employment laws, as well as worker protection and lifelong learning. France represents 3% of world GDP and the challenges of today’s world – including terrorism, military defence and global warming and innovation – will have to be tackled at European level. French voters outside of France understand that, so it is not surprising that 40% of us voted for Macron. He has brought optimism to depressed French voters with a programme that puts progressivism and Europe at the centre of his aspirations.

If elected, Macron’s main challenge will be to convince a wide enough base of moderates to go beyond their political affiliation in order to form a majority, or more likely a coalition, that will allow him to govern. When asked by my dear English friends to talk about French politics, I often find it handy to draw comparisons between candidates: Le Pen with Farage, Cameron with Fillon, and Mélenchon with Corbyn. The question of Macron remains unfortunately unanswered. I wish the UK could also find a leader who could fill the gaping hole between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn that leaves millions of UK citizens poorly represented.

Albert Reynaud

London

• I fail to understand how you can call Macron a “progressive” (Front page, 25 April). His thin policy programme, though it claims to want to remake France’s political system, proposes the same failed policies of reducing labour rights, cutting business taxes and shrinking the public sector. In terms of Europe, he wants more federalism allied to support for the calamitous euro. Such policies helped lead to a collapse of support for the traditional right and left parties.

Macron’s pro-globalisation, anti-protectionist stance is out of kilter with global trends. Whenever voters are given a choice, they vote in huge numbers for Brexit, Trump and Le Pen because of their demands for adequately controlled borders. Since the 2008 crisis, the global economy has passed what Larry Elliott terms “peak globalisation”, “peak trade” and “peak capital flows”. This new reality was even recognised at last week’s IMF meeting, when finance ministers and central bankers from around the world dropped a pledge to resist protectionism.

It is a grim choice for the majority in France who don’t like job-destroying free trade and want tighter immigration controls, but who don’t want to vote for the extreme right. Unless he rethinks his anti-protectionism, Macron could leave the way clear for Marine Le Pen’s more extreme niece, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, to take France even further to the far right in the 2022 election.

Colin Hines

Author of Progressive Protectionism

• There is a danger in oversimplifying the divide between Le Pen and Macron. While championing socially progressive, liberal values in contrast with Le Pen’s nationalist bigotry, Macron is actually a supporter of the neoliberal ideology that puts the market, profit, competition and globalisation ahead of all else. It is this very agenda which is shifting power into the hands of corporations that has left large numbers of people feeling marginalised and cut out of society. It is these same people who have voted in droves for the likes of Trump, Farage and Wilders as well as Le Pen.

Until such time as centrist politicians address the damage being done to people and planet for the benefit of a small elite, elections will continue to be in the lap of the gods. Don’t be too sure of Macron. One slip of the silver spoon and he will be dispatched in the same way that Clinton and Cameron were last year.

Fiona Carnie

Bath, Somerset

• The defeat of Marine Le Pen would be welcome, but would only cure the symptoms, not the cause. The popularity of Le Pen, Farage and Geert Wilders symbolises the growing gap between the European public, worried about the sustainability of its traditions and culture, and the European elite to whom such concerns are secondary to participating in the global economy as well as supporting globalisation and migration. Democracy is not just about winning elections, but representing people. Europe’s democracy may be deep-rooted and liberal, but on immigration and Islam, does it represent the views of Europe’s public or its elite?

Randhir Singh Bains

Gants Hill, Essex

• We may be misleading ourselves to think of political opinion as a spectrum. It is probably better to think of it as a pie-chart where the extremes meet. There is quite a lot of common ground when nationalism meets socialism, as can be evidenced not so long ago in Europe.

Because more than 40% of voters chose candidates at the furthest ends of the political spectrum, Le Pen has a real chance of winning on 7 May. If she did, this would drastically change the dynamics of campaigning in the final four weeks before our own general election on 8 June.

Geoff Naylor

Winchester, Hampshire

• Watching the elections in France, there is little to celebrate except the likely defeat of Marine Le Pen and the Front National. With the possible exception of Germany, parties of the centre-left are in near-terminal decline in major western countries. By 9 of June, the Labour Party will certainly join the Socialists of France and Spain, Pasok of Greece, and the Dutch Labour Party in the political hospice unit. Emmanuel Macron may have excited a new generation of progressive Europhiles, but pop-up centrism is no replacement for an established social democratic opposition to the right.

Abe Silberstein

Brooklyn, NY, USA

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters