French race down to Macron, Le Pen
Incumbent, nationalist in April 24 vote
PARIS — Incumbent Emmanuel Macron will face farright nationalist Marine Le Pen in a winner-takes-all runoff for the French presidency, after they both advanced Sunday in the first round of voting in the country’s election to set up another head-to-head clash of their sharply opposing visions for France.
Addressing his supporters who chanted “five more years,” Macron warned that “nothing is done” and said the next two weeks of campaigning for the April 24 second-round vote will be “decisive for our country and for Europe.”
Claiming that Le Pen would align France with “populists and xenophobes,” he said: “That’s not us.”
“I want to reach out to all those who want to work for France,” he said. He vowed to “implement the project of progress, of French and European openness and independence we have advocated for.”
The election outcome will have wide international influence as Europe responds to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Macron has strongly backed European Union sanctions on Russia while Le Pen has worried about their impact on French living standards. Macron also is a firm supporter of NATO and of close collaboration among the European Union’s 27 members.
With most votes counted, Macron had just over 27% and Le Pen had just under 24%. Hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon was third, missing out on the two-candidate runoff, with close to 22%.
Macron, a 44-year-old political centrist, won by a large margin five years ago but he is bracing for a far tougher second round against his 53-yearold political nemesis. Le Pen is promising seismic shifts for France, both domestically and internationally, if elected as the country’s first woman president.
Polling agency projections put both Macron and Le Pen on course to improve their 2017 first-round showings.
Both Macron and Le Pen now need to reach out to voters who backed the 10 presidential candidates defeated on Sunday to win in round two.
Some of Le Pen’s defeated rivals were so alarmed by the possibility of Le Pen beating Macron that they urged their supporters Sunday to shift their second-round votes to the incumbent.