France votes for new president
Centrist Emmanuel Macron, far right’s Marine Le Pen face off in key election
PARIS/ BRUSSELS: French voters were choosing on Sunday between a young, pro-European Union centrist and a eurosceptic, anti-immigration far-rightist for their next president, with official figures and estimates indicating a low turnout.
Opinion polls predicted that the 39-year-old former economy minister Emmanuel Macron would win the five-year presidency, seeing off the National Front’s Marine Le Pen after an election campaign full of scandal and upsets.
Voting was not due to end until 8 pm, but Belgian media published what they said were surveys taken on Sunday by four unnamed pollsters among people who had voted or intended to vote. The Belgian public broadcaster RTBF said the surveys put Macron’s share of the vote at between 62 and 67%.
The reported surveys were broadly in line with the last opinion polls on Friday.
By midday, both candidates had voted, he in Le Touquet on the north coast, and she in the northern town of Henin-Beaumont. A victory for Macron, who wants to deregulate the economy and deepen EU integration, would contrast with recent nativist, anti-globalisation voting outcomes such as those that will see Britain quit the EU and made Donald Trump US president.
Should an upset occur and Le Pen win, the very future of the EU could be on the line, given her desire to close borders, dump the euro currency, and tear up trade treaties.
Whoever wins will open a new chapter in French politics, after the big left- and right-wing movements that have ruled France for decades both suffered humiliating defeats in the election’s first round.
With security a prime concern, more than 50,000 police officers were on duty on Sunday. A series of militant attacks in Paris, Nice and elsewhere in France have killed more than 230 people since 2015.
The courtyard of the Louvre Museum in Paris, where Macron is due to speak after the result, was briefly evacuated on Sunday after a suspect bag was found.