Macron-Le Pen set for rematch in runoff 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.
But while Macron won their last contest in 2017 by a landslide to become France’s youngest-ever president, the same outcome this time is far from guaranteed. Macron, now 44, emerged ahead from Sunday’s first round, but the runoff is essentially a new election and the next two weeks of campaigning to the April 24 secondround vote promise to be bruising and confrontational against his 53-year-old political nemesis.
Savvier as she makes her third attempt to become France’s first female president, Le Pen was rewarded Sunday at the ballot box for her years-long effort to rebrand herself as more pragmatic and less extreme. Macron has accused Le Pen of pushing a manifesto of racist, ruinous policies. Le Pen wants to roll back some rights for Muslims, banning them from wearing headscarves in public, and to drastically reduce immigration from outside Europe.
With most votes counted, Macron had just over 27% and Le Pen had just under 24%. Hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon had nearly 22%.
Addressing supporters Sunday night, Macron warned that “nothing is done” and said the runoff campaign will be “decisive for our country and for Europe.” Charging that Le Pen would align France with “populists and xenophobes,” he said: “That’s not us.”
The election outcome will have wide international influence as Europe struggles to contain the havoc wreaked by 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 for months had looked like a shoo-in to become France’s first president in 20 years to win a second term. But National Rally leader Le Pen, in a late surge, tapped into the foremost issue on many French voters’ minds: soaring costs for food, gas and heating due to rising inflation and the repercussions of Western sanctions on Russia.
Both Macron and Le Pen now need to reach out to voters who backed the 10 presidential candidates defeated on Sunday. Some of those rivals were so alarmed by the possibility of Le Pen beating Macron that they urged their supporters to shift their votes to the incumbent. Melenchon repeatedly said: “We must not give one vote to Mrs. Le Pen.”