We dodged a bullet on Sunday. But just barely. French President Emmanuel Macron won reelection to a second five year term on Sunday. In the end, the margin of victory wasn’t that close: roughly 58% to 42%.

But Marine Le Pen?

The daughter of Jean Marie Le Pen?

The daughter of the fascist who ran for President in 1974, 1988, 1995, 2002, and 2007, and would have run in 1981 if he not failed to gather the necessary signatures.

The daughter of that guy?

During her campaign, the firebrand populist Marine Le Pen pledged to dilute French ties with European Union and NATO. Le Pen is a known admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and was opposed to sanctions on Russian energy supplies. The second term for the 44-year-old centrist spared France from the seismic upheaval that would have been the result of having Le Pen as President.

Macron acknowledged that numerous voters cast ballots for him simply to keep the far-right Le Pen from office — just as so many here in the United States voted for Biden to keep Trump from securing a second term. Macron had been accused of being haughty and indifferent to the concerns or ordinary French men and women. He pledged to try to reunite a country that is “filled with so many doubts, so many divisions” and work to assuage the anger of French voters.

Let’s hope it’s not this bloody close five years from now.