Pollsters project Macron vs Le Pen in French runoff

Centrist independent Emmanuel Macron and far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen look set to face each other in a runoff election for the French presidency, following a nationwide first round of voting on Sunday.

An Ipsos poll on Sunday evening predicted Macron would beat Le Pen in the second round by 62 per cent to 38 per cent.

Voting in his political fiefdom of Tulle in Correze, southwestern France, Hollande said that “we are in such a time, and sadly it’s nothing new and not about to end now, when we must mobilize a lot of means”.

Le Pen, 48, said this was a historic opportunity to choose between “savage globalisation that threatens our civilisation”, and “borders that protect our jobs, our security and our national identity”. However, he did work for some time as the minister of the economy under a former government.

Far-right expert Nonna Mayer at Sciences Po university told AFP that nothing was impossible, “but it seems unlikely that she will carry the second round”.

Nevertheless, Le Pen seems destined to suffer a similar fate to her father. The fact that she failed and her score is precisely that predicted by pollsters does not bode well for her presidential prospects.

“The party created by Jean-Marie Le Pen has a history known for its violence and intolerance”, Fillon said.

As the results became clear, French politicians and several of the defeated candidates appeared to throw their support behind Macron – or to speak out against Le Pen. While conceding defeat, Hamon said that he alone was responsible for the undesirable result and went on to endorse Emmanuel Macron as the candidate his supporters should vote for. The danger for Mr Macron is these voters will simply fail to turn out for the second round.

French voters are casting ballots for their next president in an unusually close first-round election Sunday, after a campaign dominated by concerns about jobs and immigration and clouded by security fears following a recent attack on police guarding the Champs-Elysees in Paris.

Aside from seven years from 1974 when Valery Giscard d’Estaing was elected president, the run-off marks the first time since the Fifth Republic constitution was adopted in 1958 that both the Gaullists and Socialists have been rejected in the vote for the presidency.

In a brief televised message, Socialist Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve urged voters to back Macron to defeat the National Front’s “funereal project of regression for France and of division of the French”.

Polling companies put the number of those planning not to vote or casting blank ballots at almost 30 percent, with many others, half the electorate according to some estimates, undecided about who to vote for.

But Yanis Olive, a 35-year-old photographer voting in Paris, said security was not “a major issue” – unemployment and the economy were more important.

Polling stations opened Saturday in France’s far-flung overseas territories for the country’s unpredictable presidential election as the 11 candidates in the race observed a ban on campaigning.

The Socialist nominee Benoit Hamon also struggled to impose himself, haemorrhaging support to the fiery far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon.

Mr Fillontold reporters in France said: “The voice of the right and centre can be heard in the [upcoming] parliamentary elections”. It’s a development that has France, the European Union and the world at large carefully observing what comes next.

Her supporters burst into a rendition of the French national anthem, chanted “We will win!” and waved French flags and blue flags with “Marine President” on them.

Polls have opened in France for the first round of the presidential election, in a vote that could not only have significant consequences for the country but also the future of the EU.

Ms Le Pen leads the Eurosceptic, anti-immigrant National Front party.

Polls have suggested far-right candidate Marine Le Pen’s voters were especially motivated to cast ballots, while supporters of other candidates were less convinced.

With voters hungry for change, Fillon was seen as a shoo-in until January when he was knocked off course by allegations that he gave his British-born wife a fictitious job as his parliamentary assistant for which she was paid almost 700,000 euros ($750,000).