Emmanuel Macron has beaten Marine Le Pen in the presidential runoff and will serve another term as president of France. Reliable projections put Macron on course for 58% to Le Pen’s 41%. Find out how the race is unfolding live department by department.
The election on Sunday 24 April is a runoff to decide between the first two candidates from the first round of voting on 10 April. Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen topped that earlier poll.
Continue reading...President’s victory against Le Pen was significantly narrower than five years ago, scoring an estimated 58.8% of the vote
Both candidates are now back in Paris from their northern constituencies, French media report.
Macron is ensconced in the Élysée Palace on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré and will later join his campaign team near the Eiffel Tower. Le Pen is at her campaign headquarters in the west of Paris.
Continue reading...Macron faces a second term at least as challenging as his first, if not more so
Assured of another five years in the Élysée after beating his far-right rival, Marine Le Pen, on Sunday, Emmanuel Macron faces a second term at least as challenging as his first, if not more so. Here we look at some of the key challenges and priorities of the re-elected president:
Continue reading...Emmanuel Macron goes into the election with a reasonable lead in polls over Marine Le Pen, after a fractious campaign
The polls have opened in mainland France for the second round of the presidential election in which voters will choose to give Emmanuel Macron another five years in office or elect Marine Le Pen.
Macron is favourite to win but any second term will be determined by whether he finishes with a convincing victory. Both he and Le Pen need to have convinced the almost 50% of voters who did not choose either of them in the first round ballot two weeks ago.
Continue reading...Veteran leftist is courting allies to help make him prime minister in June, handing him power to disrupt the winner of Sunday’s vote
Whoever wins the presidential election in France, one man is determined to sideline them and restrict their powers.
Even before the result is known tomorrow, the radical left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has emerged as a surprise kingmaker, has called on voters to make him prime minister in the legislative elections in June.
Continue reading...Analysis: 20 years on from Jean-Marie Le Pen’s advance to second round, his daughter’s ‘detoxification’ bears fruit
Throughout his forensic, if at times patronising, dismantling of Marine Le Pen’s arguments during their nearly three-hour live TV debate on Wednesday night, there was one term that Emmanuel Macron never employed: “far right”.
In the opinion of most French commentators – and voters, 59% of whom found the incumbent a convincing presidential candidate, against 39% who said the same for the Rassemblement National (National Rally) leader – Macron won the clash.
Continue reading...Centrist’s backers say voters still need convincing his policies are best for them ahead of presidential runoff
Senior political allies of Emmanuel Macron have lined up to warn against complacency in France’s presidential race, saying the incumbent is not certain to win despite polls indicating his lead over his far-right challenger, Marine Le Pen, is widening.
“The game isn’t done and dusted and we certainly cannot draw the conclusion … that this election is already decided,” the French prime minister, Jean Castex, told French radio, five days before Sunday’s second round runoff.
Continue reading...Policies of far-right candidate put under spotlight, while both contenders try to woo leftwing voters
Emmanuel Macron has consolidated his lead over Marine Le Pen as France’s presidential race enters its final week, according to polls, suggesting harsher scrutiny of the far-right challenger’s plans may be shifting the race’s dynamic.
Six days from the runoff that will decide who occupies the Élysée Palace for the next five years, all 16 polls carried out since the first-round vote on 10 April have put the incumbent ahead, by between seven and 12 percentage points.
Grant police a “presumption of self-defence” and the right to file anonymous complaints.
Radically boost the number of prison sentences handed down.
Deny healthcare to undocumented migrants.
“Restore neutrality” to an education system based on “traditional values”.
Continue reading...In a Paris suburb, opinion is divided over who to vote for after the defeat of leftwing Jean-Luc Mélenchon
Emmanuel Macron is engaged in the battle of his career to persuade leftwing voters – many of whom have taken to the streets to oppose his government over the past five years – to turn out next Sunday and give him a second term in office.
Both Macron and Le Pen need to win over a chunk of the 7.7 million people who voted for the radical left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, narrowly knocked out in the first-round ballot last week.
Continue reading...Rights groups call for united front against far-right candidate as polls predict a win for centrist Emmanuel Macron
Protests were expected around France on Saturday as opponents of the far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen seek to form a united front to prevent her from winning an election runoff against incumbent Emmanuel Macron on 24 April.
Police warned of possible incidents as demonstrators convened in 30 cities.
Continue reading...French president emerges in lead but tranche of far-right voters likely to transfer support to Le Pen
Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen went in opposite directions on Monday in an attempt to drum up support from new voters they need to win the final round of France’s presidential election in less than a fortnight.
Macron headed north, where he spent several hours talking to crowds at Denain, a former mining town once controlled by socialists but now a far-right stronghold, and promised he would listen to candidates “who failed to qualify” in Sunday’s first round of the election.
Continue reading...Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen face tense runoff after first round of voting in presidential race
A lacklustre French presidential election campaign overshadowed first by the Covid pandemic and then by the war in Ukraine has exploded into life, propelling Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen into what looks like being a brutal runoff.
Here are five key takeaways from the first round of voting as France and wider Europe brace for a nervous two weeks before the deciding 24 April vote that will determine who occupies the Élysée Palace for the next five years.
Continue reading...Follow the latest updates as projections predict a run-off between president, Emmanuel Macron, and Marine Le Pen, from the far-right National Rally
Plenty of Macron merch on offer for those at the outgoing president’s post-vote pep talk:
The abstention rate, likely to prove crucial in this election, is likely to be between 25% and 26.5 %, according to French pollsters – higher than in the previous 2017 first round (22.2%), but not at 2002’s record level of 28.4 %.
Continue reading...As in 2017 and 2002, debate over whether leftwing voters should back centrist, stay home or not vote at all
France now faces a frantic electoral fortnight after Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen made it to the second round of the presidential election, with the two remaining candidates attempting to convince the country’s voters – many of whom do not support them – that they deserve their vote in a fortnight.
For many of France’s almost 48 million voters, this will be a difficult time, particularly for those on the left of the political spectrum. Many will be asking themselves whether to select what they consider the least bad option between the centrist Emmanuel Macron or far-right Marine Le Pen, or stay at home and not vote at all.
Continue reading...Centrist Macron may find it hard to make criticism of far-right opponent’s racist, anti-Muslim platform stick in next round
When the far-right Marine Le Pen posed for a selfie with a smiling teenager in a Muslim headscarf in Dunkirk on the northern coast, it was a turning point in the presidential campaign.
Le Pen wants to ban the Muslim headscarf from all public places, including the streets, calling it a “uniform of totalitarian ideology”. So after posing happily with a girl in hijab, she was attacked for going soft by her far-right rival, the TV pundit Éric Zemmour. “Let me teach you about humanity,” Le Pen shot back at one of Zemmour’s lieutenants in a TV debate that went viral. “What would you have done? Pulled her veil off and mistreated her?”
Continue reading...Centrist leader predicted to win first round of presidential race against far-right candidate
France faces a brutal two-week campaign over the country’s future, as the centrist incumbent, Emmanuel Macron, faces the far-right Marine Le Pen for the presidency, positioning himself as a pro-European “progressive” against what he calls her anti-Muslim, nationalist programme and “complacency” about Vladimir Putin.
Macron topped Sunday’s first round of the French presidential election with 28.5% of the vote, ahead of Le Pen’s 23.6%, according to initial projected results.
Continue reading...Emmanuel Macron is asking French voters for another term as president. The far right’s Marine Le Pen, and 10 others, are challenging him. Find out the latest results department by department
Live blog: latest developments and reaction
The French president is elected by a direct vote. There is no electoral college, and no involvement of parliament. A candidate who wins more than 50% of the popular vote is elected. If, as seems likely, no candidate wins that majority in the first round, the top two candidates go through to a run-off election two weeks later, on April 24.
Continue reading...80% of those polled felt the campaign was ‘poor quality’, with many complaining of a lack of ideas or vision
A majority of French people feel the 2022 presidential election campaign has been poor quality and never really got off the ground, which could lead to protest votes and a historically low turnout in Sunday’s first round, pollsters and analysts have said.
An Ifop poll this month found 80% of French people felt the campaign was “poor quality”. Voters have complained of a lack of new political ideas or vision, and few solutions to their problems, after two years of the Covid pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and a cost-of-living crisis.
Continue reading...Centrist incumbent and far-right rival go into last day of campaigning after a week of sparring in media
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, and his far-right challenger Marine Le Pen attacked each other in media interviews and walkabouts as final polls showed the gap between them narrowing on the last day of campaigning before Sunday’s first-round vote.
Macron said Le Pen was “lying” to voters about her “racist” manifesto programme, which includes banning the Muslim headscarf, and accused her of “complacency” in her ties with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Continue reading...Europe pledges further sanctions against Russia after reports of killing of scores of unarmed Ukrainians
Russia stands accused of “terrible” war crimes, as western leaders condemned the killings of unarmed civilians in Bucha and the surrounding areas of Kyiv in alleged atrocities that prompted fresh demands for tougher action against Moscow.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the Kremlin-ordered attack on his country amounted to genocide, after local officials reported scores of civilians had been killed in the towns of Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel near the capital following the withdrawal of Russian forces.
Continue reading...