Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen on track to advance to French presidential runoff, data shows
Paris (CNN)Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen appear to be the leading candidates in the first round of the French presidential elections, an analysis of early results shows, setting up a rematch of the 2017 contest.
Macron, France’s current president, appears poised to take 28.6% of the votes, putting him in first place, according to an analysis conducted by pollster IFOP-Fiducial for French broadcasters TF1 and LCI. Le Pen, a long-time standard-bearer for the French far-right, is on track to come second with 23.9%.
Twelve candidates were running for the top job. If none of them receives more than 50% of the ballots, the top two candidates will face each other in a runoff on April 24. But a second round is all but guaranteed — no French presidential candidate has ever won in the first round under the current system.
The contest was marked by voter apathy, with 25% of all eligible voters abstaining, according to IFOP-Fiducial. That makes the turnout the lowest for a first round in 20 years.
Macron is seeking to become the first French president to win reelection since Jacques Chirac in 2002. While polls have given him a consistent edge over the field, the race tightened significantly in the past month.
In third place was leftist firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon with 20.1%. Melenchon enjoyed a late surge in support and was considered a possible dark horse candidate to challenge Macron.
No other candidate received more than 10% of the vote, according to the analysis. Far-right political commentator turned presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, who enjoyed a seat among the top three candidates until March according to IFOP polling, came in at 7%.
Surveys ahead of the race showed that a second round of Macron vs. Le Pen was the most likely outcome. Macron handily beat Le Pen five years ago, but experts have said that a second contest between the two would be much tighter than the 2017 race.
Macron is no longer a political upstart and must run on a mixed record. While his ambitious plan to bolster the European Union’s autonomy and geopolitical heft won him respect abroad and at home, he remains a divisive figure when it comes to domestic policies.
Macron’s handling of the yellow vest movement, one of France’s most prolonged protests in decades, was widely panned, and his record on the Covid-19 pandemic is inconclusive.
Macron’s signature policy during the crisis — requiring people to show proof of vaccination to go about their lives as normal — helped increase vaccination rates but fired up a vocal minority against his presidency.
Though Le Pen is best known for her far-right policies such as drastically restricting immigration and banning Muslim headscarves in public places, she has run a more mainstream campaign this time around, softening her language and focusing more on pocketbook issues like the rising cost of living, a top concern for the French electorate.
This is a developing story. More details to come.
CNN’s Xiaofei Xu contributed to this report
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/10/europe/french-presidential-election-results-intl/index.html
