Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at letters@scmp.com or filling in this Google form . Submissions should not exceed 400 words, and must include your full name and address, plus a phone number for verification. Since the end of the second world war, two parties have dominated French politics – Les Republicains and Parti Socialiste. Emmanuel Macron was the first French president to be elected from a third party, and now he is the first president to be re-elected in more than 20 years. This year, these two parties struggled mightily in the presidential election. The Republican candidate earned just 4.8 per cent of the vote in the first round, while the Socialist candidate only got 1.8 per cent. Meanwhile, Macron garnered 28 per cent of the vote while Marine Le Pen took 23 per cent, allowing both to advance to the final round of voting. La France Insoumise, a recently formed left-wing populist party, won 22 per cent of the vote in the first round under Jean-Luc Melenchon. This new party is asserting itself as the dominant voice of left-wing politics in France and also the potential deciding factor in breaking the stalemate between Macron and Le Pen. Le Pen did rather well despite her loss. She has extensively campaigned for France’s withdrawal from Nato and distancing itself from America, a policy that has been unaffected by the war in Ukraine. In the future, she could find allies among La France Insoumise voters, with Melenchon publicly expressing scepticism about Nato. The election could signal a change in France and perhaps all of Europe. France is rare among European Union countries in having a directly elected president. It is impossible for establishment parties to hold on to power in the face of rising unpopularity in a system where one vote can decide the future of the country. The rest of Europe is different. Most European countries are ruled by coalitions where policy is decided behind closed doors as opposed to the ballot box. The European People’s Party has been the largest party in the European Parliament since 1999, holding on to power by creating a coalition. Former German chancellor Angela Merkel stayed in power by offering incentives to opposing parties to join her ruling coalition. This system has distanced people from governments and stunted the growth of more unconventional political views. However, such views cannot be suppressed. While it is not reflected in the governments of today, anti-Nato and even anti-EU politics is becoming more popular and more extremist. Most of Europe has managed to sweep such issues under the rug, but how long will this last? If these sentiments are not addressed soon, it could be only a matter of time before the system implodes. Timothy Wong, Central History shows West’s role in Ukraine war Your article (“How Chinese state media paints an alternative picture of the Ukraine war”, April 24 ) says the mainland media works hard to portray the West as the real villain behind the war. Actually, it isn’t that hard; recent recorded history clearly shows that the US aggressively expanded Nato after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, violating an informal promise made in 1990 not to expand Nato even one inch eastward. Russia, meanwhile, was entirely friendly to the US for 23 years until 2014 – and even after, until the US unfairly targeted it. There was no justification for the expansion of Nato. The US has been quietly training and arming Ukraine’s military in recent years. If Russia had waited until Ukraine became an official member of Nato, Article 5 protection of Ukraine would have considerably tightened the noose around Russia’s neck. Nothing could have stopped the American stationing of nuclear arms on Ukrainian soil. Bruce Weintraub, New York