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Marine Le Men (left) and Emmanuel Macron head into a second round in France after a first election marked by abstentions.
President Emmanuel Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen are in first place in France’s elections this Sunday, meaning they would face each other in the second round for the presidency.
Macron registers a 27,4% of the votes while his opponent got a 24.9%. In third place, just behind the leader of the group, is the left-wing candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon with 20.5%, with 88% of the votes counted.
Le Pen and Macron faced each other in the second ballot in 2017.
To mark the occasion, the European country will hold the crucial election on April 24, as none of the 12 current candidates managed to get 50% of the votes needed to win in the first ballot. The new French head of state will take power on May 13.
A poll released Sunday night by French broadcaster BFM TV gives Macron 52% of the voting preferences and Le Pen 48%.
A president can stand for immediate re-election only once, and each term lasts five years. Should Macron win, he would be the first president in 20 years to resign.
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At her campaign headquarters, after the first results were published, Le Pen asked those who did not support Macron to vote for her in the second ballot.
She added that if elected, she would be the “president of the entire French people.” He also addressed the issues he had campaigned for, including affirming French values, immigration control and security.
“Without waiting, I intend to sew up the tears of a crumbling France, something power has so far failed to do,” he said.
For his part, Macron called on the French to stop the extreme right. “I invite everyone, including those who didn’t vote for me in the first round, to support us,” he said.
“Enjoyable populism and xenophobia, that’s not France,” he said. “Nothing is decided,” he added, urging his followers to “spare no effort.”
The president also thanked the losing candidates and publicly called for a vote on his candidacy.
Image copyrightEPA
They demand that Le Pen not be elected
At least five losing candidates have asked voters not to favor Le Pen in the upcoming election, including Mélenchon, who previously emerged and accepted defeat.
“You must not give Le Pen a single vote! You must not give Le Pen a single vote!” said the politician from the France Insumisa movement, who has been described as the hope of the “left” in the current election.
“Let’s not make the mistake of running away, we know who we’ll never vote for!” he added, but never mentioned Macron.
Republican Party candidate Valérie Pécresse (4.7%), socialist Anne Hidalgo (1.76), communist Fabien Roussel (2.38) and environmentalist Yannick Jadot (4.3%) clearly demanded a vote for the current French leader.
Likewise, far-right Éric Zemmour showed his fondness for Le Pen. The journalist, who is identified with even more conservative positions than Le Pen, came fourth in Sunday’s election with 6.9%.
Image copyrightReuters
Subtitle,
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, candidate of the extreme left, urged voters this Sunday not to vote for Marine Le Pen. He finished third in Sunday’s elections.
Significant abstention
The numbers from this weekend’s election, in which 49 million citizens were called to vote, show an increase in abstention compared to the last two election events.
According to the Interior Ministry, as of 5:00 p.m. local time, a turnout of 65% of those entitled to vote was registered. In the first round five years ago, participation was 69.42%, in 2012 it was 70.59% at the same time.
According to opinion polls, the most important issues in the current election campaign are the Russian invasion of Ukraine, economy, migration and security.
In January, France recorded its highest annual economic growth in half a century, recovering from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Image copyrightReuters
But gas prices have skyrocketed, as have energy bills, and annual inflation is up 4.5%.
Those most affected by the economic situation are, of course, voters on low incomes and those under the age of 35.
For this reason, the 12 candidates adapted their proposals to the cost of living crisis. Some have offered big increases in basic income or, in the case of Le Pen, tax breaks for under-30s.
Similarly, unemployment in the country has fallen to 7.4%, just above the eurozone average but close to the target the current president set when he took office, which promised 7%.
Regarding immigration, official statistics suggest that around 6.8 million immigrants lived in France in 2020. About a third were European, from both the European Union and non-EU countries.
More information coming soon.
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