PARIS — The date was May 7, 2017. Addressing cheering supporters, the newly elected leader of France, Emmanuel Macron, made a promise that now, in his waning 18 months as president, lies in tatters.

The rival that Macron defeated that day, Marine Le Pen, had secured 10,638,475 votes. They were nowhere near enough for the far-right leader to win. But they were too numerous for Macron to ignore, a best-ever watershed at the ballot box for Le Pen’s once-ostracized National Front party that she inherited from her Holocaust-denying father.

Gazing out over a sea of French flags, Macron acknowledged “anger” and “distress” that he said motivated Le Pen voters. He pledged to do everything to win them over, “so they no longer have any reason to vote for the extremes.”

But since then, Le Pen's us-

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