“Nothing has been decided yet, what will happen in the next fifteen days is crucial for France and for Europe.” Emmanuel Macron is ahead of Marine Le Pen after the first round of the French presidential election, but everything will, as always, be decided in the April 24 vote. “You can count on me,” says the president, cheered on by his fighters, at the Porte de Versailles in Paris and appeals to compatriots of all political backgrounds to block the way of the extreme right. Macron received full votes tonight, 4% more than when he was elected in 2017, keeping the bogeyman Le Pen at bay. But in 15 days everything can be questioned again, and if the outgoing leader at 28.4% versus 23.4% of the challenger can count on the support of a good chunk of both right and left, analysts’ calculations say so Marine Le Pen will garner at least 7% more votes than she received on the challenge 5 years ago: that of Eric Zemmour, who asked his supporters to vote for her tonight. However, the first polls on April 24 reward Macron: According to a study by Ipsos Sopra Steria for Le Parisien, he would be confirmed in the Elysée with 54% of the voting intentions.
The advantage attributed to him by IfopFiducial for TF1/LCI/ParisMatch/SudRadio: 51 to 49 is narrower, moderate left, led by a socialist party whose candidate Anne Hidalgo sadly sits at 2%. On the other hand, stands out the popular triumph of JeanLuc Mélenchon, the tribune of the radical left, who for the first time climbed over 20% to third place. And above all, sweeping away the fears of those who thought it possible that quite a few of his supporters would vote for Le Pen as antiMacron: “Not even one vote may go to Marine Le Pen! he shouted from the stage four times and delighted his followers.
Contrasting mood in the home of farright polemicist Eric Zemmour, who in a few weeks fell from 16% (he was initially neck and neck with Le Pen) to 7% of the votes actually collected in the polls. He paid for his proRussian demands, but most importantly, he lost the bet to replace the president of the Rassemblement National as leader of the far right. Despite the unsuccessful escape of some of his lieutenants including his niece Marion Maréchal Le Pen received his votes three times to secure Reconquete! to join the movement founded by Zemmour. Tonight, she expressed confidence as she appealed to the French “of all sensibilities,” “everyone who didn’t vote for Macron,” “to join this great national and popular gathering.” The other results in particular describe sensational defeats, such as that of Valérie Pécresse, the first woman to run for the neoGalist Républicains for the Elysée, which plummeted from 1617% initially to 5% tonight. His predecessor in the race for the Elysée, Francois Fillon, had won 20% five years ago, despite being paralyzed by the parliamentary staff scandal. Expected more because it has been announced for weeks by the polls, the 2% of Anne Hidalgo, the socialist mayor of Paris, who in recent days anticipated her defeat by proclaiming the need to reestablish the PS.
Ecologists are bad too, with Yannick Jadot below the 5% threshold amid a climate emergency that has been the campaign’s most ignored issue. More than ever, only Mélenchon remains on the left, who has submitted his takeover bid on the left and is offering himself as the leader of a new “people’s pole. As the French like to repeat on the evening of the first round, the battle for the second round has already begun. On the Macron front, we’re watching the challenge live on TV, which is due to be confirmed in about ten days. Five years ago, he emerged from this discussion as the undisputed winner, with Marine Le Pen appearing unarmed in front of the whole of France. He finished 6634 but times have changed. And even if Valérie Pécresse has said she will vote for him, the giant neoGalilist tank has suffered a 15% voter rout that risks partially ending up in Le Pen. The fight is still long, the specter Le Pen is far from defeated.
Riots broke out in the center of Rennes and Lyon in the evening, where several hundred people gathered and caused damage at the announcement of the result of the first round of the French presidential elections. About 500 people, mostly young people, marched through the streets of Rennes chanting anticapitalist and antifascist slogans. Street furniture was destroyed and windows of bank branches were damaged. On a square in the city center, a fire was ignited with material from construction sites, which required the fire brigade to be deployed. The police intervened late in the evening to break up the demonstration.
Emmanuel Macron expects a large outdoor rally in Marseille next week, the major port of southern France overlooking the Mediterranean: writes the newspaper Le Figaro. The presidential candidate, who took the lead yesterday with 27.6% of the preferences in the first lap of the Elysée race ahead of Marine Le Pen (23.41%), intends to multiply movements and interventions in the media with a view to the vote April 24th. On April 20, the two candidates will face off on TV for the traditional prevote confrontation.