Macron to face Le Pen in French election run off
PARIS - French President Emmanuel Macron topped the first round of presidential elections on Sunday, beating far-right rival Marine Le Pen by a larger than expected margin and setting up what is expected to be a tight run-off between the pair later this month.
Projections showed Macron scoring 28-29% on Sunday with Le Pen on 23-24%. As the top two finishers, they advance to the second round on 24 April.
Despite entering the campaign late and holding just one rally before the vote, Macron performed more strongly than predicted and won immediate support on Sunday night from most of his defeated rivals ahead of the run-off.
“Make no mistake: nothing is decided,” he told cheering supporters at his campaign headquarters.
“The debate that we are going to have over the next fortnight will be decisive for our country and Europe.”
But he added: “When the far-right with all its forms is so high in our country, you can’t say that things are going well.”
Far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon just missed out in third with a projected score of 20-21%.
The candidates for France’s traditional parties of government - the Socialists and the Republicans - were meanwhile on course for humiliating defeats and historic low scores.
Far-right pundit Eric Zemmour, a political newcomer running for the first time, was projected to win 6.5-7.1%.
The Ifop-Fiducial group gave Macron a razor-thin winning margin of 51 versus 49%, Ipsos-Sopra Steria gave him a slightly wider margin at 54% versus 46%.
The Elabe group suggested Macron would score 52% to Le Pen’s 48% if the election were held now.
Bidding to be France’s first woman president, Le Pen looked set for a higher first-round score than in 2017 and she will be able to pick up most of Zemmour’s votes in the second round.
The 53-year-old said the run-off would present “a fundamental choice between two visions” with Macron representing “division, injustice and disorder... to the benefit of a few” against her plan for “social justice and protection” guaranteed by the nation state.
It would be a “choice of society and even of civilisation”, she said. The election campaign has been overshadowed by the conflict in Ukraine, while surging prices of everyday goods have made the cost of living the overwhelming priority issue for voters.
The outcome of the two-stage election will have major implications for the European Union, which Le Pen says she wants to radically reform.
She has also said she wants to pull out of the joint military command of the US-led NATO military alliance.
Macron said Sunday: “I want a France that places itself in a strong Europe, that continues to form alliances with the world’s democracies to defend itself.
“Not a France which, once out of Europe, would only have the international alliance of populists and xenophobes as allies. That’s not us.”
A pivotal moment in the next stage of the campaign will come on April 20 when the two candidates are set to take part in a TV debate broadcast live on national television and watched by millions.
The final debate has in the past had a crucial impact on the overall outcome, including in 2017 when Macron was widely seen as bettering a flustered Le Pen.