French election

President Emmanuel Macron had warned of civil unrest if far-right contender Marine Le Pen was elected.

However, her past scepticism of the EU and financial and personal links to Russian president Vladimir Putin had attracted fierce criticism. However, almost 30 per cent of registered voters did not show up, the most at a presidential election since 1969. He is the first incumbent in two decades to win consecutive terms.

Emmanuel Macron will win France's presidential election, pollsters project, fending off a historic challenge from right-wing candidate Marine Le Pen during ...

"You cannot properly defend the interests of France on this subject because your interests are linked to people close to the Russian power" Le Pen's ability to attract new voters since 2017 is the latest indication that the French public are turning to extremist politicians to voice their dissatisfaction with the status quo. This time, however, Macron had to run on a mixed record on domestic issues, like his handling of the yellow vest protests and the Covid-19 pandemic. These projections, which are based on data from voting stations that close at 7 p.m. in the rest of the country, are usually used by the candidates and French media to declare a winner. Still, Le Pen acknowledged the fact that the far right had never performed so well in a presidential election. Macron is projected to take 58.2% of the vote, according to an analysis of voting data by pollsters Ipsos & Sopra Steria conducted for broadcasters France Televisions and Radio, making him the first French leader to be reelected in 20 years.

French President Emmanuel Macron won a second term in a closely watched race against right-wing rival Marine Le Pen, who has conceded.

Many of those who chose Mr Macron are believed to have done so to keep out Ms Le Pen because of her extreme views and her links with Russia.

Macron's victory means the status quo of the last five years goes on. "France is one of our closest and most important allies. France and Germany remain the spine of Europe and the French president is likely to continue trying to take a prominent role leading Europe diplomatically. His rival Marine Le Pen would have set France on a collision course with the EU and changed the axis of power in Europe. She even wanted to restore France's alliance with Russia once the Ukraine conflict was over. "In order to avoid the monopolisation of power by a few, more than ever I will pursue my commitment to France and the French people with the energy, perseverance and affection that you know me for." "I fear that the five-year term that is about to begin will not break with the brutal methods of the previous one.

The French are voting in a presidential runoff election on April 24 to decide whether to give Macron a second term or elect his far-right challenger.

Le Pen, who has tried to put emphasis on her left-leaning economic policies in a bid to woo Melenchon voters, suggested polls putting Macron in the lead would be proven wrong. A Financial Times poll tracker has Macron ahead with 55.3 percent of the vote, compared to Le Pen at 44.7 percent, although the margins vary broadly depending on the poll. "The next day, they woke up with a hangover." If Macron triumphs as polls indicate, it would make him the first French president in 20 years to win a second term. Polls give Macron, 44, a double-digit lead over Le Pen, 53, a gap that has widened since the first round of voting on April 10. Macron has issued appeals to leftist voters, urging them to turn out to vote to avoid the political upheaval that came with the election of Donald Trump in the U.S. and the U.K.'s vote to leave the European Union.

Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen are in the runoff to be the next president of France. Find out how the race is unfolding live.

For most of the campaign, it seemed that Macron, the incumbent president, would win comfortably in the second round. The runoff is decided by simple majority of valid votes: if either candidate gets one more vote than the other, he or she is elected. But a surge in Le Pen’s polling in the final weeks made this more doubtful.

French President Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen faced off in the presidential election's final round.

“I also know that many of our compatriots voted for me today, not to support the ideas that I’m carrying, but to block those of the far right. to make of our country a great ecological nation.” “We will have to be strong but no one will be left by the wayside.” Shortly before wrapping up, Emmanuel Macron argued France must continue to play a leading role in addressing the war in Ukraine in his victory speech tonight. I am the depository of their sense of duty, of their attachment to the Republic, and of their respect for the differences that have been expressed in recent weeks.” “We had the system against us,” said one of them at Le Pen's electoral night, accusing French media of demonizing the right-wing candidate. “There are still lots of divisions, lots of misunderstanding… POLITICO found that the village had become the site of fierce contest between local campaigners vying for control in a region of France long-known as a far-right stronghold. In 2017, Macron won by a larger margin. There are very many of them.” “From now on, I am no longer the candidate of a camp, I am the candidate of all of you,” Macron said. A number of small demonstrations protesting Emmanuel Macon’s re-election have erupted in cities across France tonight.

Plus, Putin pivots to a land-grab strategy and Shanghai tightens its strict lockdown.

It was striking. One French voter after another we interviewed ahead of Sunday's presidential election told us: "I'll vote Macron but only to keep Le Pen ...

Their champions, like one teacher I met leaving a polling station in tears on Sunday, are sceptical - to put it mildly and politely - that the next five years of Macron's presidency will be any different. At least compared to his presidential rival. His promised social justice and environmental reforms fell by the wayside. It's notable, looking at their tweets - from the European Commission president, to the Spanish and Portuguese prime ministers and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz - that each and every one of them not only congratulated Macron, but trumpeted the confidence vote in Europe they interpret in his victory too. He'd be socially just, he said, while kick-starting the economy. In his victory speech, held in front of the backdrop of the French flag and the Eiffel Tower, an unusually humble-sounding Macron admitted that his was a divided country, and that he'd do his best to heal those divisions.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison congratulated Mr Macron, along with other world leaders; Ms Le Pen admitted defeat but vowed to keep up the fight. Cheers of joy ...

"We must forget our quarrels and unite our forces. "Many in this country voted for me not because they support my ideas but to keep out those of the far-right. "Your constituents also sent a strong commitment to Europe today. I am pleased that we will continue our good cooperation!" "The first coalition of the right and patriots, so that the elected representatives of the National Rally of France Upstanding and those of the (conservative) Republicans who do not want to rally behind Emmanuel Macron is a chance to do so. "In order to avoid the monopolisation of power by a few, more than ever I will pursue my commitment to France and the French people with the energy, perseverance and affection that you know me for." Hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon — who emerged as by far the strongest force on the left of French politics — said he deserved to be prime minister, something that would force Mr Macron into an awkward and stalemate-prone "cohabitation". Mr Macron is the first French president in 20 years to have secured a second term in office, and his centrist government will remain in power for the next five years. Mr Macron accused Mr Morrison of lying to him about the state of the French contract before a deal was announced for the US and Britain to supply Australia with nuclear-powered submarines. I want to thank them and know I owe them a debt in the years to come," he said. In his victory speech, Mr Macron acknowledged many had only voted for him solely to keep Ms Le Pen out, and he promised to address the sense that many French have that their living standards are slipping. - Mr Macron is the first French President in 20 years to secure a second term

PARIS -- President Emmanuel Macron is in the pole position to win reelection Sunday in France's presidential runoff, yet his lead over far-right rival ...

In an opinion piece Thursday in several European newspapers, the center-left leaders of Germany, Spain and Portugal urged French voters to choose him over his nationalist rival. “A great number of the people who are going to vote for Macron, they are not voting for this program, but because they reject Marine Le Pen.” He says that's the only way to keep benefits flowing to retirees. The question is a hard one, especially for leftist voters who dislike Macron but don’t want to see Le Pen in power either. Political analyst Marc Lazar, head of the History Center at Sciences Po, told the AP he thinks that Macron is going to win again. He said he will also keep pushing for a more powerful Europe.

Opinion polls point to Macron as the likely winner but with a much smaller margin than in 2017.

If Macron wins, he will face a difficult second mandate as president. The decisions of left-wing voters will be crucial to the outcome. So the key is to convince undecided voters that the other candidate is worse, which Macron is doing by honing in on fears of the far-right, and Le Pen is doing by banking on voter disenchantment with Macron’s tenure in power.

Women walk past campaign posters of French President and La Republique en Marche (LREM) party candidate for re-election Emmanuel Macron (L) and French far-right ...

“She has been among the first if not the only French candidate to recognize Crimea, the annexation of Crimea by Russia. So very, very clearly she will not be in favor of stronger sanctions. And of course a crisis with Brussels, with lots of uncertainties down the road,” Araud told VOA. And like in the U.S., France is facing a wave of inflation.” In order to reach that kind of agreement you would need to find other countries that are like-minded. The more we free ourselves from the Brussels straitjacket while remaining inside the EU, the more we will open ourselves up to the wider world. She has criticized the supply of heavy weapons to Ukraine by NATO members and plans to weaken French links with the alliance. “If she is elected, basically it will be quite chaotic. None of us went to seek financing from a Russian bank, and especially not from one that is close to power in Russia.” Her approach to Russia is in stark contrast to that of most Western leaders. We want to reform the E.U. from the inside. What would a Le Pen presidency mean for Europe’s security at a time of conflict? “You don't speak to other leaders, you speak to your banker when you speak to Russia, that's the problem…

When will French election results be announced? Latest polls for Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen before vote. Emmanuel Macron is hoping to become the first ...

The first indication we will have of who will be the President of France for five years will be an exit poll that will be revealed at around 7pm UK time. However, we will have to wait until at least Monday for the result to be officially confirmed - although the country’s Constitutional Council has until Thursday (28 April) to announce the result if it’s a tight race. Emmanuel Macron is hoping to become the first sitting President of France to win a second term in office for 20 years, while Marine Le Pen is aiming to become the country’s first female President. However, while Macron appears to be ahead, there is a big question over how many voters cast a blank vote (i.e. spoil their ballot) or stay at home, given neither were the preferred choice for around 50% of the electorate who voted in the first round. Emmanuel Macron appears to be the favourite to win, with polls giving him a margin of between 6% to 15% over Marine Le Pen. The second round of the French election 2022 is taking place this weekend, with only hours to go until voters head to the ballot box.

It's crunch time for voters in France as incumbent President Emmanuel Macron is meeting Marine Le Pen at the ballot box for Sunday's final presidential ...

She wants companies to increase salaries by 10%, and to raise teachers’ salaries over the next five years. She wants to raise the minimum pension, and end income tax for under-30s. A former economist and banker, Macron has championed startups and promises “full employment.” The jobless rate decreased during his 2017-2022 term to its lowest level in a generation. He wants companies to be able to give employees an untaxed bonus of up to (euro)6,000 and has spent billions capping energy bills. Le Pen has for years cultivated ties with Moscow, receiving a loan of 9 million euros from a Russian bank in 2014 and meeting with Putin in 2017. Macron’s government says it sent 100 million euros in weapons to Ukraine since the Russian invasion and Macron vows to continue this support and “significantly” reinforce European armed forces’ capacities and cooperation.

Five years after its last presidential election, France today opens its polling booths with the same two candidates on the ballot paper. Emmanuel Macron, the ...

And the other one will be rueing a missed chance, and wondering if their political career has come to an end. Ms Le Pen and Mr Macron are experienced, time-worn politicians, but their views on what to do with the presidency are very different. By the time Sunday ticks into Monday, one of them will have been given a five-year mandate to run this wealthy, powerful and influential country. In all those areas, there have been notable differences between Mr Macron and Ms Le Pen. Beyond that, new information will be released periodically, updating the overall result. A great deal of attention will be placed on the turnout this time around, with plenty of speculation that voters will stay away because they don't particularly like either candidate.

French citizens are heading to the polls Sunday in a presidential election set against the backdrop of war in Ukraine and a cost of living crisis.

If Macron is re-elected he will become the first incumbent in two decades to return for a second term. "Each of the two candidates need to try to correct their perceived weakness. Macron told Le Pen during the two-hour talks: "When you speak to Russia, you are speaking to your banker," according to a translation. "Le Pen, this time round, can play the card of change much more than Macron," he said. Back then, Macron crushed Le Pen's party (National Front which has since been rebranded National Rally) with 66.1% of the votes, to 33.9%. The last days of the campaign trail have seen Le Pen's old links with Russia and President Vladimir Putin resurface.

PARIS — Emmanuel Macron is again facing far-right challenger Marine Le Pen in the country's presidential election, in a repeat of the 2017 battle.

But Macron didn’t miss the opportunity to attack the far-right candidate on her economic program as well as on her proposal to ban headscarfs in public and to accuse her of being on Putin’s payroll. Nonetheless, if Macron does win, it could prove trickier to have an absolute majority in the National Assembly compared with 2017, as his potential victory is bound to be much narrower than five years ago. For Macron, who faces his greatest challenges from the far right and far left, voter apathy presents a threat of its own. Both rounds also coincide with school holidays in various parts of the country The French are usually pretty diligent voters, turning out at rates of around 80 percent in recent presidential elections. Macron made a series of campaign visits targeted at crucial constituencies and gave a string of interviews, from legacy radio station France Inter to a website specialized in rap music. She has also managed to partly sweep her long-lasting support for Russian President Vladimir Putin under the rug and eclipse her far-right rival, TV pundit-turned-politician Eric Zemmour, who didn’t qualify for the second round. The president-candidate has pushed forward a reformist agenda at home, including some very contentious ideas on labor law, and pushed out a big economic package to face the COVID crisis. Recent revelations about the state’s over-reliance on consulting firms have also put a strain on his reelection bid. He has taken a predominant role on the international stage – albeit not always successfully, as shown by his efforts to stop Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. A media blackout starts at midnight Friday and ends on Sunday when the last polling station closes at 8 p.m. During that period, politicians are not allowed to campaign or speak publicly. While no sitting president has been reelected since Jacques Chirac in 2002 — both conservative Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist François Hollande were elected only once — Macron is the front-runner this year.

Emmanuel Macron goes into the election with a reasonable lead in polls over Marine Le Pen, after a fractious campaign.

The polling stations close at 7pm this evening in most of mainland France and 8pm in major towns and cities. Mélenchon came a close third with 7.7m votes, just 420,000 short of Le Pen. The candidates for the mainstream right and left both trailed with Valerie Pécresse from the conservative Les Républicains in fifth place and Anne Hidalgo for the Parti Socialiste in 10th place; both polled under 5% meaning they will not have their campaign expenses reimbursed. Macron is favourite to win but any second term will be determined by whether he finishes with a convincing victory.

French voters will choose between two very different visions for their country during Sunday's presidential runoff election, as the centrist President ...

While Macron won 27.8% of the votes in the first round to take the top spot, the results indicated major voter discontent with the status quo. 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. Macron's handling of the yellow vest movement The former investment banker and economy minister must defend a mixed political record while also convincing voters that his platform, headlined by major investments in industry and fighting the climate crisis, won't simply mean more of the same. However, she has not abandoned some of her most controversial policies, like banning Muslim women from wearing headscarves in public. She also performed better in Wednesday's presidential debate

PARIS — Polls have opened in a French presidential election runoff that is being closely followed around the globe for its potential to redefine France's ...

“April 24 is a referendum on the future of France,” Macron told BFM television in a final interview on Friday evening, comparing the stakes — and potential risks of abstentionism — to the 2016 U.S. election and the Brexit vote. Le Pen renamed the party from National Front to National Rally in 2018. It would replace a fervent defender of the E.U. with a longtime critic of the bloc. When Macron faced off against Le Pen five years ago, he beat her by a margin of more 30 percentage points. And, since the surprise success of the Brexit referendum in 2016, few in Europe are willing to count out the unexpected. There’s not nearly the same level of enthusiasm for him as when he first ran in 2017, launching his own centrist political movement and becoming France’s youngest president.

Emmanuel Macron easily defeated the far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the 2017 battle for president, but the race this time around is expected to be much ...

Ms. Le Pen, who wants to bar women from wearing them in public, called them “a uniform imposed by Islamists” that undermined French values of secularism and gender equality. The vote is being closely watched in part because a Le Pen victory, although improbable, appears possible. While she suffered through some difficult moments in the debate, appearing lost on the subject of the ballooning debt France incurred in battling Covid-19, she generally held her own. At a time when revived nationalism had produced Brexit and the Trump presidency, he bet on a strong commitment to the European Union — and swept aside his opponents with an incisive panache. Voters in France are deciding between the same two candidates as the last presidential election: Emmanuel Macron, the president and a polished centrist, and Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Rally party. They openly courted voters on the left after Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a fiery leftist candidate, got 21.95 percent of the vote in the first round. She also tried to woo some supporters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leftist leader who finished just behind her in the first round, by continuing to promote economic policies that she said would help the working class. In 2017, Mr. Macron won handily with nearly two-thirds of the vote. France’s presidents have formidable powers at their disposal, set much of the country’s agenda and are elected directly by the people to five-year terms in a two-round voting system. On Sunday, a bruising gloves-off battle between Ms. Le Pen and Mr. Macron will come to a head as the French choose their president for a five-year term. It has split into three blocs: the hard-line left, an amorphous center gathered around Mr. Macron and the extreme right of Marine Le Pen. She regularly conflates Islam with violence in a country with the largest Muslim population in Western Europe.

While most countries rely on exit polls to declare elections winners, at the risk of jumping the gun, pollsters in France base their estimates on actual ...

It almost happened after the first round this year as a surge in support for third-man Jean-Luc Mélenchon in urban constituencies saw pollsters rush to adjust their projections after 8pm, bringing him very close to Le Pen’s score. “This means we have to wait for the first polling stations to close at 7pm, whereas exit polls can be worked on throughout the day.” In polling stations sampled by Ipsos and its peers, an official calls the pollster after every 100 ballots counted to report the results. “We also use exit polls in France, for instance to evaluate each candidate’s level of support by age group or profession,” he says. But in what has become a familiar ritual, social media networks will start buzzing hours earlier with rumours of Belgian or Swiss polls claiming to predict the outcome of the election. Unlike in most other democracies, where those projections are based on exit polls, French pollsters base their estimates on ballots that have actually been counted.

French voters to choose between centrist incumbent Emmanuel Macron and far-right politician Marine Le Pen.

“It’s a stark choice the French face today. They now suggest a Macron victory around the 56-44 percent range. They are seen as Macron’s strong point who did not spare an attack on Le Pen’s close ties to Russia during the presidential debate on April 20.

Voter turnout in the second round of the French presidential election on Sunday was 26.41% by midday (1000 GMT), interior ministry data showed.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Analysts say a low turnout adds to uncertainty surrounding the final result. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Paper ballots tucked in paper envelopes. No absentee voting, and no early voting either. Voters in Sunday's French...

PARIS–Millions of French were headed to the polls Sunday for the final round of a presidential election that has laid bare deep divisions among voters ...

To some voters, however, Ms. Le Pen is no longer the bête noire of French politics. She also proposed a ban on the Muslim head scarf in all public places, describing the garb as an instrument of Islamist ideology. Since her 2017 loss, Ms. Le Pen has dropped her opposition to the euro, the EU’s single currency, and focused on pocketbook issues, framing her 2022 campaign as a fight against inflation. France has been targeted with terrorist attacks by assailants who cited cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in French media as their motive. Still, polls indicate that Ms. Le Pen and her party have never been closer to power. Still, she says, Mr. Macron’s “door to immigration is too open.” Ms. Le Pen has said Europe’s decisions have only raised the cost of living for French households, hammering on a source of growing public discontent that has helped her climb in the polls over the past month. She also zeroed in on the impact the war in Ukraine was having on France’s economy, particularly the higher fuel prices that affect working-class commuters. Over the past two weeks Mr. Macron’s lead has begun to widen again, with polls suggesting he is ahead by a margin of between 11 and 15 percentage points. Ms. Le Pen has condemned Russia’s aggression. Mr. Macron zeroed in on such proposals in the final stretch of the election, accusing Ms. Le Pen in the national debate of seeking to foment a civil war in a country that has one of Europe’s largest Muslim minorities. Ms. Le Pen has stuck with a political program, however, that seizes on the anxieties that many voters outside France’s largest cities feel about Islam’s place in French society.