Macron to face Le Pen after first round of French presidential election

The independent centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen have made it through to the final round of the French presidential election.

With almost all of the 47 million ballots counted, Macron topped Sunday’s first round with 23.9% of votes, slightly ahead of Le Pen with 21.4%.

Macron, 39, a political novice, now becomes the favourite to be elected as France’s next president. He is the youngest ever French presidential hopeful and has never run for election before.

After the UK’s vote to leave the European Union and the US vote for the political novice Donald Trump as president, the French presidential race is the latest election to shake up establishment politics by kicking out the figures that stood for the status quo. 

The vote marks the end of a political era with the two major parties, the Socialists and centre-right Les Republicains, which have traditionally been the pillars of France's political arena, both being eliminated in the first round.

Conservative Francois Fillon was on just under 20% of the vote, marginally ahead of far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon on 19.5 per cent. Socialist candidate Benoit Hamon was set to pick up an historically low 6.3 per cent.  

France’s two political outsiders – the progressive, pro-business and socially liberal Macron and the anti-immigration, anti-EU, far-right Le Pen – will now face off in a final round on 7 May.

According to the latest polling about voters' intentions in the second round, Macron is forecast to beat Le Pen by 62% to 38%, with many political figures quick to join the 'anyone but Le Pen camp'.

Conceding defeat, Mr Fillon asked his supporters to back Mr Macron in the second round of voting on 7 May, urging them to keep Ms Le Pen away from the presidency. 

The Socialist prime minister Bernard Cazeneuve led appeals from across the political spectrum to support Macron in order to block Le Pen, who he said represented “regression and division” for France. The scandal-hit right-wing candidate François Fillon, who was knocked out of the race, said he would also vote for Macron because the Front National “has a history known for its violence and intolerance” and its economic and social programme would lead France to bankruptcy.

As for Melenchon, he said he would not endorse any candidate for the second round.

Macron, a former investment banker, who had been a chief adviser and then economy minister to the Socialist François Hollande, is not a member of any political party. He quit government last year and launched his own political movement, En Marche! (on the move), that was “neither left nor right”, promising to “revolutionise” what he called France’s vacuous and decaying political system.

Speaking in front of an ecstatic and raucous crowd in Paris, Macron said of his fledgling political movement: “In one year we have changed the face of French political life.” He said he represented “optimism and hope”. In a dig at Le Pen, he said he would be a president of “patriots” against the “nationalist threat”.

The frontrunner called for hope in Europe in stark contrast to Le Pen, who campaigned to leave the European Union (EU). Macron said the EU would have to be reformed and revived with a project "which protects" and offers a place to every French citizen. 

Le Pen’s place in the final round cements her party’s steady rise in French politics. The Front National has made steady gains in every election since she took over the leadership from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in 2011.

Addressing her supporters in the town of Hénin-Baumont, an FN stronghold, Le Pen said the first hurdle towards the Elysée Palace had been overcome. She hailed the results as “historic” and warned “the survival of French civilisation” was now at stake. 

Le Pen ran a hardline campaign against immigration and promised to crack down on what she called “Islamic fundamentalism”. While Macron’s supporters at rallies waved EU flags and he hailed the positive role of the 27-country bloc, Le Pen told supporters “the EU will die”. She wants to leave the euro, return to the franc, exit the Schengen agreement and close French borders.

Le Pen promised to give priority to French people over non-nationals in jobs, housing and welfare, and would hold a referendum to cement this policy into the constitution. She said she would demand extra tax from companies that employed any kind of foreign worker.

In the final days of the first round campaign, she returned firmly to the main concern of her electorate: immigration. She went further than she had done before by promising to immediately suspend all legal immigration in order to reassess what she called the “uncontrollable situation” of foreigners coming into France. She promised a ban on religious symbols, including the Muslim headscarf, from all public places.