Le Pen, Macron advance in French election
Presidency could decide France’s future in European Union
Centrist independent Emmanuel Macron and far-right anti-immigration nationalist Marine Le Pen will advance to a showdown for president of France that will determine whether the nation stays the course or upends European unity and its liberal immigration policies, results of first-round voting Sunday showed.
The election was a historic repudiation of major party candidates, who quickly rallied around Macron in the May 7 runoff to prevent the election of Le Pen, who wants to ban Muslim immigration and pull France out of the European Union it helped found 60 years ago.
With 86% of the vote counted, France’s Interior Ministry said Macron was leading with 23% of the vote followed by Le Pen with 22%, the Associated Press reported. Le Pen said Sunday her National Front party will represent “the great alternative” to the French people.
Macron has broken with France’s traditional left or right political leadership to run as an independent and promised to invest in public infrastructure and modernize France’s workforce.
Protesters angry about Le Pen’s results scuffled with police. Crowds gathered on the Place de la Bastille, and police fired tear gas to disperse an increasingly rowdy gathering as riot officers surrounded the area.
French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve urged voters to support Macron in next month’s final round.
Marion Abonnenc, 21, a student in Paris, said she was “satisfied” and “relieved” her choice among the candidates is advancing.
“I support Macron but also voted against the extremes which I really don’t want to see in the second round,” she said. “Marine Le Pen has a heinous message which really doesn’t correspond to my values as a youth as a citizen of the world. And it’s not the image of France I want to convey.”
At Le Pen’s campaign base in Henin Beaumont, 120 miles north of Paris, Jerome Leroy, 34, an entrepreneur, was ecstatic.
“We managed to get the others out of the picture already,” he said. “Only one candidate remains: Emmanuel Macron who in fact will bring nothing more than (President) François Hol- lande does today. So now the real debate can start and we are happy about it — it’s awesome.”
Unpopular Socialist Hollande did not run for re-election.
Voters chose between 11 candidates in the most unpredictable French election in decades and it came amid heightened security in the wake of a terrorist attack in Paris on Thursday in which a police officer was shot and killed.
France’s stagnant economy, its 10% unemployment rate and national security were the top concerns of the 47 million eligible voters.