Alwaght- The first round of the French presidential elections has ended with centrist Emmanuel Macron and extremist far-right leader Marine Le Pen set to face each other in a May 7 runoff.
During Sunday’s French Presidential Election, seen as one of the closest and most unpredictable contest in decades, Macron was projected to have scored 23.7% and far-right leader Le Pen 21.7%.
Turnout figures for the first round of the French presidential election showed a 28.54 percentage participation rate.
The French prime minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, has joined his Socialist party’s defeated candidate, Benoît Hamon, in urging the party’s voters to support Emmanuel Macron in the second round.
“I solemnly call for a vote for Emmanuel Macron in the second round in order to beat the Front National and obstruct the disastrous project of Marine Le Pen that would take France backwards and divide the French people,” he appealed.
Senior conservative lawmaker Francois Baroin from the camp of defeated right-wing candidate Francois Fillon has also urged the parties’ supporters to support Marcron.
An opinion poll conducted in February by Odoxa/Dentsu-Consulting indicated that Macron, 39, a former economy minister running without the support of any traditional political party, would beat Le Pen in the run-off with 61 per cent of the vote, versus 39 per cent for her.
Another poll by Figaro/LCI showed Macron winning the runoff by 58 per cent to 42 per cent for Ms Le Pen.
The two politicians going for a runoff have radically contrasting economic visions for a country whose economy lags that of its neighbors, where a quarter of young people are unemployed amid increasing security threats.
Macron has been calling for gradual deregulation measures that will be welcomed by global financial markets, while Le Pen wants to dump the euro currency and possibly follow Britain in exiting the EU and the appeals to xenophobic and extremist right wing elements in the multi-racial country.
