Marine Le Pen

Weeks ago the president appeared sure to win a second term, but the gap narrowed significantly while he focused on the war in Ukraine and Ms Le Pen ...

She denies Mr Macron's allegations of racism. But after a late start to his campaign due to the war in Ukraine and Ms Le Pen's efforts to focus on the cost of living crisis at home, the gap in their ratings closed, with the National Rally candidate within the margin of error to achieve a victory for the first time. Weeks ago the president appeared sure to win a second term, but the gap narrowed significantly while he focused on the war in Ukraine and Ms Le Pen concentrated on issues at home.

A flurry of early projections and exit polls showed incumbent Macron came first with 28.1-29.5% of the vote, followed by Le Pen on 23.3-24.4%. The surging cost ...

Le Pen, seen as economically left-wing despite being very much affiliated with the far fight in France, has been highly focused on the cost of living. Support for Macron had jumped following Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and his mediation efforts earlier this year. Most of the mainstream candidates that failed to make the runoff immediately backed Macron after the exit polls came in, with Mélenchon telling his supporters there "must not be one single vote for Le Pen in the second round." But it's an issue that his opponent Le Pen, who heads up the anti-immigration National Rally party — leveraged significantly in her campaign. A flurry of early projections and exit polls showed incumbent Macron came first with 28.1-29.5% of the vote, followed by Le Pen on 23.3-24.4%. The different projections showed different tallies but all pointed toward a runoff between Macron and Le Pen in two weeks' time, with the gap between the two not as tight as some political analysts had been predicting. French leader Emmanuel Macron and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen topped the first round of presidential elections on Sunday, according to exit polls, and are set to face off in the final vote on April 24.

We'll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest French presidential election news every morning. Emmanuel Macron and his far-right rival Marine ...

France's presidential runoff will likely see Emmanuel Macron face off against Marine Le Pen for a second election in a row, but the woman challenging ...

Le Pen visited the Russian strongman during her 2017 campaign for president She is best known as a member of the French far-right's first family. The strategy appears to have worked.

'There must not be one single vote for Le Pen in second round,' far-left candidate forecast to be out of race says.

She has also been attempting to tap into the day-to-day grievances of average voters, who have been facing rising fuel, food and energy prices. Mr Macron had previously been forecast a comfortable win in his re-election bid. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Casting her ballot in a northern French town on Sunday, Ms Le Pen said the outcome of the election could shape France for not only the five-year term of the next president but also “probably the next 50 years“. Emmanuel Macron will face Marine Le Pen in the second round of the French election, according to projections released after the first round of voting. The current president has topped voting in this first round with a comfortable lead of between 27 to 29 per cent support, ahead of Marine Le Pen who is predicted to capture 23 to 24 per cent of the vote.

Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen qualify for the second round of the French presidential election.

In 2017, Le Pen herself lost to Macron with close to 34 percent of the vote, a much greater share than her father. Reactions in the camp of her far-right rival Eric Zemmour will also be watched closely. Macron, meanwhile, has been perceived as taking a high-handed approach to the election, declaring his candidacy only last month, and refusing to debate with rival candidates. It is Le Pen’s third appearance —and her highest ever showing — in the first round of a presidential election. Much will now depend on which candidate can pick up the support from Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the far left, who came third in the first round with a projected vote of slightly more than 21 percent. His rival Le Pen, a longtime admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, garnered 23.4 percent of the vote, according to the same projections.

Projected results in first part of presidential race put centrist leader on 27.6% and far-right candidate on 23%

For the first time, Le Pen is able to benefit from a reservoir of transferable votes in the second round. For the first time, the figures are in the margin of error and give Le Pen the mathematical chance of winning. The second round on 24 April will now be a replay of Macron and Le Pen’s last bruising election encounter in 2017. Polls over the last week have shown Le Pen as high as 49% for the potential runoff. As the contest began on Sunday night for both Macron and Le Pen to vacuum up support from the smaller candidates, the choice of Mélenchon’s voters is now key. Therefore, and despite my strong disagreement with Macron … I will vote for him in order to stop Marine Le Pen.”

Mr Macron is hoping to become the first French president in 20 years to win re-election.

Mr Melenchon also urged his supporters not to vote for Ms Le Pen. Just over a month ago, on March 2, an Ipsos poll had his numbers at more than double that of Ms Le Pen, at 30.5 per cent against 14.5 per cent. According to projections last night, Mr Macron had won 27.6 per cent of the vote against Ms Le Pen’s 23 per cent. She also dropped her 2017 plans to restore the death penalty and pull France out of the EU in a “Frexit”. In 2012, their respective candidates, Mr Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, garnered a combined 55 per cent of the first round vote, but last night that had collapsed to just 6.7 per cent. However, he has barely campaigned, appearing to focus his energies on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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 ...

Surveys ahead of the race showed that a second round of Macron vs. 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. 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%. While Macron appears on track to win the first round, he is a polarizing figure whose approval rating has lagged during his first term. Macron is seeking to become the first French president to win reelection since Jacques Chirac in 2002. Twelve candidates were running for the top job.

Centrist Macron may find it hard to make criticism of far-right opponent's racist, anti-Muslim platform stick in next round.

Macron’s tactic so far has been to remind voters of the details of Le Pen’s manifesto, slamming it as a racist, anti-Muslim platform that would wreck the economy and create mass unemployment. Last week, the pollster Brice Teinturier of Ipsos found that if Le Pen were elected president tomorrow, more people expected an improvement in their own situation and the situation of the country than if Macron were re-elected. That Le Pen is now closer to power than ever before is in part the result of her own rethink of political strategy. In September 2021, Le Pen was the 11th most popular political figure in France – already a high position. Instead of holding big rallies, Le Pen went under the radar to visit markets in small towns and villages, listening and posing for selfies. Le Pen rose in the polls while Zemmour dropped, damaged by his previous admiration of Putin and initial refusal of Ukrainian refugees.

Emmanuel Macron wins the first round, but the run-off against his far-right rival may be far closer.

She has built her campaign around the cost-of-living crunch facing much of Europe, promising to cut taxes and waive income tax for under-30s. But in the end, the spring sunshine meant turnout was not as low as feared, at almost 75%. Mr Macron's team is already planning a series of big rallies and major TV appearances. Ifop pollster François Dabi said his company's 51%-49% estimate was the closest they had ever predicted. Later in the evening, Mélenchon activists gathered outside his campaign HQ thinking he might even come second, but it was not to be. The battle for votes now starts in earnest.

Will it be the first re-election of a president in 20 years, or third time lucky for his far-right opponent?

She would remove the right of children born in France to foreign parents to obtain French nationality in their teenage years. In 2018 Le Pen renamed the party the National Rally, seeking to get rid of the martial imagery and broaden its appeal. She has promised to renationalise motorways, scrap the TV licence fee and privatise public service broadcasting. During the Covid pandemic, he turned to state interventionism and vast public spending to protect companies and households, boasting of “nationalising wages”, which the public backed. He has promised to gradually raise the pension age from 62 to 65, an unpopular measure. He says that for the first time in 30 years, France is opening more factories that it is closing.

While earlier forecasts projected a comfortable win for Mr Macron in his re-election bid, Ms Le Pen has been narrowing this lead in recent weeks. According to ...

Ms Le Pen has insisted that French law prevails over the EU rules and would employ thousands more customs agents to check goods entering France, including those from other EU countries, to fight fraud. She also aims to scrap income tax for those under 30 and cut Vat on energy from 20 per cent to 5.5 per cent, reported Reuters. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. While earlier forecasts projected a comfortable win for Mr Macron in his re-election bid, Ms Le Pen has been narrowing this lead in recent weeks. When she was attacked by her far-right rival Eric Zemmour for “going soft”, she shot back saying: “Let me teach you about humanity.” With her party receiving a bank loan from a Russian bank in 2014 and Ms Le Pen being hosted by Mr Putin at the Kremlin ahead of the 2017 presidential election, the presidential hopeful has been accused by her opponents of being too close to Moscow.

Emmanuel Macron wins the first round, but the run-off against his far-right rival may be far closer.

She has built her campaign around the cost-of-living crunch facing much of Europe, promising to cut taxes and waive income tax for under-30s. But in the end, the spring sunshine meant turnout was not as low as feared, at almost 75%. He had only started campaigning eight days before the vote, his mind more focused on Russia's war in Ukraine. She can already count on an impressive 33% of the entire vote. Later in the evening, Mélenchon activists gathered outside his campaign HQ thinking he might even come second, but it was not to be. Marine Le Pen can count on supporters of Eric Zemmour, whose more hardline nationalism won him fourth place and 7%. Nationalist Nicolas Dupont-Aignan has also backed her.

As in 2017 and 2002, debate over whether leftwing voters should back centrist, stay home or not vote at all.

A Harris Interactive study examined possible second-round intentions to vote in a runoff between Macron and Le Pen. It found 34% of Mélenchon voters would vote for Macron and 21% Le Pen, but 45% would abstain or spoil their vote. Only 8% of Éric Zemmour voters would support Macron and 84% Le Pen, and only 8% would abstain. A key campaign moment in the next two weeks will be a debate between Macron, 44, and Le Pen, 53, which could sway undecided voters. I don’t want Emmanuel Macron and I don’t want Marine Le Pen. For me they’re the same.” “I think I will not vote in the second round,” he said. Many will be asking themselves whether to select what they consider the least bad option between the centrist Emmanuel Macron or far-right Marine Le Pen, or stay at home and not vote at all.

Critics warn she's changed her style but not her far-right values. This time though, Le Pen appears much more palatable to many voters.

But I've met Melenchon supporters who've already told me they would vote for Le Pen in a run-off. By making the cost of living her central theme, she appealed to a broader church of voters. It's now or never for her - and many in her party feel this is their moment.

France's disenchanted blue-collar workers may end up propelling his rival Marine Le Pen into power after she secured a run-off against the president in the ...

How the left's votes are redistributed nationally will be a key factor in the second-round vote's outcome. If the polls say 49-51, at that moment I will vote Macron,' said Guillaume Raffi, 36, a music producer from Montpellier. 'I'll see how the next two weeks go. Minimum pensions would be raised to €1,100 a month Wants French law to take primacy over EU law Left-wing candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon came close to pipping Ms Le Pen on Sunday, with 22.2 per cent of the vote – just 1.2 per cent behind Ms Le Pen Left-wing candidate Melenchon came close to pipping Le Pen on Sunday, with 22.2 per cent of the vote – just 1.2 per cent behind Le Pen. 'The difference is that in 2017, people voted for Macron because he was new and we didn't know him so we were like, well let's try it. Analysts say the left-wing vote could likely be split, with a third going to Macron, a third going to Le Pen and a third abstaining. The pair are equally as trusted on the cost of living crisis, and 19 per cent would vote deliberately to stop Macron in a second round, compared to 18 per cent for Le Pen, showing the dissatisfaction with the current president. She did everything right. The two will now face off in a head-to-head on April 24, with pollsters predicting a far closer showdown than their 2017 battle, with Le Pen currently forecast to take 49 per cent of the vote in the second round, well within the margin of error for victory.

French president emerges in lead but tranche of far-right voters likely to transfer support to Le Pen.

Here, the far-right candidate appeared to be preaching to the converted, as just under 38% of the 871 people who voted locally chose her, and just under 22% Macron. Mélenchon has emerged as a potential kingmaker in third place after he rose to within a few points of Le Pen at just under 22% in a surprising 11th-hour surge. He also said he would “develop” his programme after listening to the “anger and despair” of those who had not voted for him, and particularly young people’s concerns over the environment. Others in the crowd that mobbed him as he walked around wanted to talk about the rising cost of living and concerns about jobs and health. We will be discussing how to revitalise our democracy and explain my manner of governing. “I want to convince our compatriots who voted for [Le Pen’s] the National Rally or who abstained to join us. Le Pen’s greatest support came from 50 to 59-year-old voters. More than 3.2 million voters who chose other far-right candidates including Éric Zemmour are likely to transfer their support to Le Pen. It was announced on Monday that Macron and Le Pen will go head-to-head in a televised debate four days before the vote, during which they will be questioned about their programmes. “We will be speaking about agriculture and being self-sufficient in production and inflation. But more than anger I am hearing worry.” “I see the divisions and anger in the country and I hear the voices of those who have voted for the extremes, even those who voted for Madame Le Pen,” he said.

The far right politician is set to face sitting President Emmanuel Macron in the final round of the French election. | ITV National News.

She met the Russian president during the 2017 French election and repeated her support for the annexation of Crimea. Ms Le Pen has leaned heavily on the cost of living issues on the minds of many French voters at the expense of talking about immigration. Although she has been known for her fierce stance on immigration and French culture, in this election she has sought to widen her appeal. On Sunday, French citizens voted in the first round of the presidential elections which saw sitting president Macron come first with 28% of the vote and Le Pen second with 23%. 53-year-old Marine Le Pen is the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded the far-right party she now leads. Far-right politician Marine Le Pen is set to face Emmanuel Macron for the second time in the French presidential elections after the two traditional parties of France were trounced in the first round, but who is she?

We'll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest French presidential election news every morning. “The policies that I represent are the policies ...

PARIS — The relief felt by supporters of French President Emmanuel Macron as election results rolled in late Sunday has been short-lived.

“She was also the first to speak about purchasing power, and that has helped normalize her, and include her in the national debate.” His disappointing result can now be an asset for Le Pen, as he has galvanized voters who might have been discouraged by the National Rally’s mainstream drive. Five years ago, Le Pen was widely judged to have come off second best in a bruising televised clash. According to the pollster Lévy, Le Pen has broadened her appeal and can attract new voters from among the right, the left and those who abstained in the first round. Mélenchon urged his supporters not to back Le Pen, but many say they are still undecided and 18 percent of his voters have said they could vote for her. “We can beat Macron because another term for him would be a disaster for the French people and because we can show we are credible and capable of running the country.”

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