French election

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.

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.

If Macron's win is confirmed then it would make him the first French president in two decades to win a second term.

If Macron's win is confirmed then it would make him the first French president in two decades to win a second term. But that support dissipated in the days prior to the first round of voting on Apr. 10, as French citizens focused heavily on domestic affairs and soaring inflation. In a two-hour TV debate Wednesday, Macron called out Le Pen's previous ties with Russia and President Vladimir Putin, accusing her of being dependent on Moscow. Turnout on Sunday was 2 percentage points lower than the 2017 election, according to the Interior Ministry. Immediately after the projections, Le Pen spoke to her supporters in Paris and accepted defeat. The 2022 campaign was set against the backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a cost of living crisis in France, a surge in support for the far-left among younger generations and suggestions of widespread voter apathy.

France began voting in a presidential runoff election Sunday in a race between between incumbent Emmanuel Macron and far-right politician Marine Le Pen.

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France began voting in a presidential run-off election Sunday with repercussions for Europe's future, with centrist incumbent Emmanuel Macron the ...

Macron has said his next prime minister would be placed in charge of environmental planning as France seeks to become carbon neutral by 2050. Citizens and especially millennials voted in droves for Mélenchon. Many young voters are particularly engaged with climate issues. She said bringing down the cost of living would be her priority if elected as France's first woman president, and she portrayed herself as the candidate for voters unable to make ends meet. France's presidential campaign has been especially challenging for voters of immigrant heritage and religious minorities. All opinion polls in recent days converge toward a win for the 44-year-old pro-European centrist — yet the margin over his 53-year-old nationalist rival varies broadly, from 6 to 15 percentage points, depending on the poll. The outcome could depend on how left-wing voters make up their minds: between backing Macron or abstaining and leaving him to fend for himself against Le Pen.

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

French President Emmanuel Macron greets Quebec Premier Francois Legault, left, prior to their meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France. Monday, Jan.

Montreal is home to one of the largest populations of French nationals outside of France itself. After 10 days of intensive efforts, the search for two people on board an aircraft that was reported missing during a flight between Delhi and Marathon, Ont., has been suspended, search and rescue officials say. Edmonton fire was called to a three-storey apartment building Sunday for a blaze on the top floor of the building. - Search for missing plane that went down in northern Ont. called off Search efforts were called off Sunday for a plane that took off from Delhi, Ont. and never made it to its destination in northern Ontario. After 10 days of intensive efforts, the search for two people on board an aircraft that was reported missing during a flight between Delhi and Marathon, Ont., has been suspended, search and rescue officials say. Misty Fredericks is still coming to terms with the fact that someone she knew and loved was found in the wreckage of the Winters Hotel 11 days after the fire that tore through the building in Vancouver's Gastown neighbourhood. - Search for missing plane that went down in northern Ont. called off After 10 days of intensive efforts, the search for two people on board an aircraft that was reported missing during a flight between Delhi and Marathon, Ont., has been suspended, search and rescue officials say. - Search ends for plane that went missing after taking off from Delhi, Ont. - Search for missing plane that went down in northern Ont. called off A Swedish study has found that even short-term exposure to low levels of air pollution could play a role in the development of a COVID-19 infection, or testing positive for the disease, in young adults.

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.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen hailed her score in presidential elections on Sunday as a "brilliant victory", despite her projected defeat to ...

"The ideas we represent have reached new heights... "This evening, we launch the great battle for the legislative elections," Le Pen said, saying she felt "hope" and calling on opponents of the president to join with her National Rally (RN) party. Promising to "carry on" her political career, the 53-year-old vowed that she would "never abandon" the French after losing with around 42 percent of the vote to Macron's roughly 58.

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French President Emmanuel Macron won a clear victory in the high-stakes presidential election that once again pitted him against far-right challenger Marine ...

It is higher among young voters and among those who make the least amount of money. In 2002, her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, won 17.8% of the vote in the second round against Chirac. "We can count on France for five more years," he added. Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who came third in the first round of the election, has urged his supporters to vote in the "third round" in an attempt to gain a majority in parliament. Le Pen said that the "historic score" would allow them to increase the number of MPs in the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly. He added that he knew it was his responsibility to find answers to the "anger" that led millions of French people to vote for Le Pen.

Marine Le Pen didn't win Sunday's election in France, but she edged another step closer, snatching a victory of sorts from her defeat to re-elected ...

Steve Wallis isn't most people. Johnny Depp and Amber Heard are currently spending their days in a Fairfax, Virginia courthouse. Canadian 'Jeopardy!' champion Mattea Roach has found herself at the centre of an ownership dispute. Leslyn Lewis says that, in making her second attempt to become leader of the Conservative Party, she's confident that she can unify the party while promoting socially-conservative positions. With poor road conditions and flooding, Manitoba Hydro says it may take a while to get the lights back on. Melissa Lucio, 52, is set to be executed Wednesday for the death of her 2-year-old daughter Mariah. 5 hr ago For Le Pen, he also had the advantage of making her look vanilla and electable in comparison, which also partly explains why she did so well. He makes racial arguments that white French people risk being replaced by non-European immigrants and their children. They're not all wary of the EU, Muslims and foreigners. Same goes for her proposals to move French citizens to the front of lines for jobs, benefits and housing. The fierce nationalist didn’t win Sunday. But she edged another step closer — snatching a victory of sorts from her defeat to re-elected President Emmanuel Macron.

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.

Victory for Emmanuel Macron makes him the first French President to be re-elected in 20 years.

Then you have [left-wing] Jean-Luc Melenchon, who did well in the first round and came in third and wants to take revenge in the parliamentary elections. He swims in an ocean of abstentions and spoiled ballots,” Melenchon said. Police used tear gas to disperse gatherings in Paris and the western city of Rennes. “The voters have spoken, Le Pen has been beaten, France clearly refused to entrust its future to her. “Many in this country voted for me not because they support my ideas but to keep out those of the far-right. “You have three political forces,” he told Al Jazeera. “You have Macron’s centre, a major chunk of the political spectrum. Le Pen was beaten 66 percent to 34 percent by Macron in 2017 and her father Jean Marie Le Pen, who founded her party, got less than 20 percent against Jacques Chirac in 2002. With nearly all votes counted, Macron was on course for a solid 58.6 percent of the vote, according to interior ministry figures. Leaders in Berlin, Brussels, London and beyond welcomed his defeat of the nationalist, eurosceptic Le Pen. “Congratulations to the President and a true friend @EmmanuelMacron on the election victory,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on his Twitter account in the early hours of Monday. Italian Premier Mario Draghi hailed Macron’s victory as “splendid news for all of Europe” and a boost to the EU “being a protagonist in the greatest challenges of our times, starting with the war in Ukraine”. “No one in France will be left by the wayside,” he continued, pledging to be a “president for all”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin among leaders to send congratulatory messages to Macron after his re-election.

Congratulations Emmanuel Macron on your re-election as President. Another great expression of liberal democracy in action in uncertain times. I look forward to our continued close cooperation — including on supporting Ukraine, defending democracy, and countering climate change. “I wish him further success for the sake of the [French] people. France is our oldest ally and a key partner in addressing global challenges. Congratulations to@EmmanuelMacronon your re-election as President of France. France is one of our closest and most important allies. Europe wins,” Sanchez wrote.

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.

Political analysts believe the continued rise of the far-right will cause Emmanuel Macron significant headaches over the coming years.

Eric Zemmour, also an anti-immigration and far-right politician, was one of the many new names in the French political scene in the runup to this year's election. Jean-Marie Le Pen received 17.8% of the votes that year. She and her party, National Rally, will now face a renewed challenge from Eric Zemmour and her own niece, Marion Maréchal," Rahman said in the same note. Having taken the reins of the party from her father in 2011, then called National Front, she ran for top office in 2012, 2017 and now 2022. Instead, Le Pen chose to talk about soaring inflation and the weaker purchasing power of French citizens. Centrist Macron obtained 58.54% of the votes on Sunday, whereas his nationalist and far-right rival Le Pen got 41.46%. Back in 2017, when the two politicians also disputed the second round of the French presidential vote, Macron won with 66.1% versus Le Pen's 33.9%.

French President Emanuel Macron won a second term on Sunday over far-right challenger Marine Le Pen -- the first incumbent to be reelected in France in two ...

In the first round, far-left and far-right candidates accounted for more than 57% of the ballots cast." was less overtly anti-Islamic and anti-immigrant as her past two campaigns for president in 2012 and 2017, though the focus of her policies has largely not changed. Klain is searching for good political news here. The point? Both sought to capitalize on anxiety about the changing world -- economically, socially and otherwise -- to appeal to their voters. Heading into his reelection fight, though, Macron was in stronger shape

Analysis: Far-right candidate finished far ahead of Emmanuel Macron in Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion.

“We no longer know how to talk to our overseas citizens,” she said. She also won in the Indian Ocean constituencies of Mayotte (59.1%) and Réunion (59.5%). “This was more than just a punishment vote,” Combeau told the paper.

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.

French President Emmanuel Macron will again face his far-right rival, Marine Le Pen, in a runoff election for France's presidency on Sunday.

Le Pen previously spoke out in favor of Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. For some, the former banker-turned-president is the lesser of two evils and a vote for Macron is considered a vote against Le Pen. Still, no one is ruling out the possibility of a triumph for Le Pen. However, she has been likened to former U.S. President Donald Trump with her hard-line policies on Islam and immigration. "She comes across as less extremist than before." Sunday's runoff is a rematch of the 2017 presidential election, in which Macron beat Le Pen by a landslide. Le Pen, 53, has sought to soften her rhetoric and image as the leader of the far-right French political party National Rally. She is no longer directly calling for France to leave the European Union and abandon the euro currency.

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.

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

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.

... © Reuters. On April 24, 2022, people waited in line to cast their vote at the Lyon polling station. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe.

Voting began at 8 AM and ends at 8 PM. First projections of the results will be made at 8 PM. It was slightly lower than it was in 2017, at 28.23%. But it was still higher than it had been two weeks earlier, at 25.48%. According to analysts, a low turnout can increase uncertainty around the final results.