Counting the ballots in France
Photo: Reuters
French projections say Macron, Le Pen go through to runoff in presidential vote
According to polls, if the projections are confirmed, the centrist Macron is expected to triumph in run-off election in a fortnight; the two candidates have vastly different programs, but regardless of who wins, the French political landscape is going to be drastically changed.
Centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen are set to face each other in a May 7 runoff for the French presidency after coming first and second in Sunday’s first round of voting, early projections indicated.
In a race that was too close to call up to the last minute, Macron, 39, a pro-European Union ex-banker and economy minister who founded his own party only a year ago, was projected to get 24 percent by the pollster Harris and 23.7 percent by Elabe.
Marine Le Pen, 48, leader of the anti-immigration and anti-EU National Front, was given 22 percent by both institutes. Three further pollsters all projected broadly similar results.
Macron and Le Pen (Photos: Reuters & MCT)
Though Macron is a comparative political novice who has never held elected office, opinion polls in the run-up to the ballot have consistently seen him winning the final clash against the Le Pen easily.
Defeated Socalist candidate Benoît Hamon urged voters to rally behind Macron in the second round, as did senior conservative lawmaker François Baroin from the camp of defeated right-wing candidate François Fillon.
Counting the ballots in France (Photo: Reuters)
Harris gave both Fillon and far-left contender Jean-Luc Mélenchon 20 percent, which will mean their elimination from the race.
Fillon had consistently been polling third in surveys leading up to the election. French senator and key Fillon supporter Roger Karoutchi told reporters, “The first indications are not good.”
The result, if confirmed, will mean a face-off between politicians with radically contrasting economic visions for a country whose economy lags that of its neighbors and where a quarter of its young people are unemployed.
Macron with his wife, Brigitte (Photo: MCT)
That in turn reduces the prospect of an anti-establishment shock on the scale of Britain’s vote last June to quit the EU and the election of Donald Trump as US president.
Early indications from Reuters data showed the euro currency jumping to a four-week high around $1.09 in response to the early projections, from $1.0726
Macron favors gradual deregulation measures that will be welcomed by global financial markets, while Le Pen wants to ditch the euro currency and possibly pull out of the EU.
Le Pen exiting the voting booth (Photo: Reuters)
Whatever the outcome on May 7, it will mean a redrawing of France’s political landscape, which has been dominated for 60 years by mainstream groupings from the center-left and center-right, both of whose candidates faded.
Macron ally Gérard Collomb said the defeat of the mainstream center-left Socialists and the center-right Republicans showed a “deep malaise” in French society.
The final outcome on May 7 will influence France’s standing in Europe and the world as a nuclear-armed, veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council and founding member of the organization that transformed itself into the European Union.
