To read your depressing editorial (8 May) and the surprisingly negative piece by your normally brilliant columnist Timothy Garton Ash (This is only a reprieve, 8 May), one would have thought Emmanuel Macron had actually lost the French presidential election instead of winning by a near-record margin. As for Timothy’s three points on “the triple espresso of reality”, first it is dangerous to exaggerate the strength of the Le Pen vote. Macron’s 65.5% of the poll (comparable with our EU referendum in 1975) was very much higher than those achieved by De Gaulle, Pompidou, Giscard, Mitterrand, Chirac, Sarkozy and Hollande. Chirac’s freak win in 2002 is the one exception. Does Timothy think that a French president needs a Chinese-style unanimous electorate?

Secondly, while it is certainly the case that Macron would benefit from a majority in the legislative elections next month, the French constitution, with its emphasis on strong presidential authority, is perfectly capable of coping with cohabitation: the Mitterrand-Balladur period in the 1990s was notably effective.

Thirdly, while the problems of the EU are undeniable, they would have been incurable if Le Pen’s neo-fascist demagogy had won the day. In the final TV debate, she could offer nothing except personal abuse. In fiscal terms alone, Macon’s centrist programme promises a more hopeful European future. Progressive values are not best served by relentless gloomy negativity. We’re not “all doomed”. Our French comrades in the entente have rejected the blinked isolationism and serial lying of our Brexit campaign, and the uselessness of our party leaders, and we should rejoice. En Marche, citoyens!

Kenneth Morgan

Long Hanborough, Oxfordshire

• According to Paul Mason (Macron’s victory shows cheap xenophobia can be beaten, 9 May) “Low education, short lifespan, pessimism about the future and blue-collar work: these are the predictors of voting far right in France or Brexit here.” There is something galling about the constant reference to low education as a predictor for identification with the far right. It assumes a causal role because this is easier than looking at the facts.

The Front National gathered votes in areas where the working class have become casualties of deindustrialisation and have been abandoned by the left. Marine Le Pen’s constituency is “forgotten France”, as much as Ukip was taking votes in working-class communities forgotten by Labour. The solutions of the far right only make sense to a defeated, abandoned working class – because there is no other game in town. It then becomes easier to conceive of getting rid of your neighbour as a solution than organising collectively for increased resources for all. It is “being forgotten” that causes working-class communities to turn to the right.

In such circumstances, Mason’s “solution” – an alliance between “the free market elite and left voters” – would be a disaster for the left. What’s required is the complete opposite – the reforging of a working-class movement entirely independent of the establishment. People who want a Filipino nanny, and cheap Polish builder to dig their basement, are only internationalists in the sense that they want to exploit the whole world.

Nick Moss

London

• I write as a 68-year-old remainer. On 23 June last year my peer group, the silver voters, took a decision to leave Europe which was not supported by their children. Next month the same silver voters are likely to elect an anti-EU Conservative administration with a three-figure majority.

How I envy the French: a tide of centrist young voters has swept into power a man who is two years younger than the median age of the population. On Sunday night on the steps of the Louvre Emmanuel Macron was surrounded by ecstatic young people. Macron, like the 2008 Obama, represents hope and change, allied to a commitment to the EU.

The young of Britain, who largely voted to remain, have been betrayed, perhaps irrevocably, by their selfish, insular, xenophobic elders. They must follow the French example and find their political voice before it is too late. The party Macron founded, En Marche! – now rebranded as La République En Marche – is only a year old, and look what it has achieved. Here in Britain there is a gaping vacuum in the centre which needs to be filled by something similar.

Crispin Read Wilson

Swanage, Dorset

• When the fog of Brexit has cleared and Europe has been suitably put back in the box, the people will start to turn their thinking to domestic matters. Like where’s my hospital gone? Or there are no more nursing homes left and my children’s school is asking me for money because it’s broke etc. It will be too late. The people who will be doing this could be voted in with gusto because of one issue in mind, and they will be here for the next 10 years or more. Remember, Brexit isn’t the only issue in town, there’s more going if you take notice. Think before you vote on 8 June.

Pete Berthiaume

Bridgwater, Somerset

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