There’s a new face in French politics who could pose a serious challenge to President Emmanuel Macron and his re-election ambitions.Xavier Bertrand, a politician from the center-right Les Republicans party, won Sunday’s regional vote with around 52% of support in the northern region of Hauts-de-France. He beat the candidate from the far right, who got around 26% of the votes, according to exit polls published by France’s interior ministry.“The National Front was stopped, and we have strongly pushed it back,” Bertrand said during a victory speech on Sunday in relation to the far-right party, which was renamed National Rally in 2018.In Sunday’s regional vote, marked by a very high level of abstentions, Bertrand’s party experienced strong support across the country. On the other hand, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and La Republique en Marche, of the incumbent Macron, failed to win in any of the regions..by cnbc.com