As it happened: live reporting of Emmanuel Macron's election as French president

PleasePlease regularly refresh this page for latest reports, which appear top of page, from around 8pm French time. A brief guide to the elections and the candidates can be found at the bottom of this page. All times local (CET).

-------------------------

Final update Monday, at 7pm:

Final results published by the French interior ministry on Monday gave Emmanuel Macron a 66.1% share of the vote (just more than 20.7 million votes cast), against 33.9% for Marine Le Pen (more than 10.6 million votes cast).

But behind Macron’s victory, hailed by the European Commission and many world leaders as the sign of a retreat of recently buoyant isolationist, populist movements, are some sobering statistics:

A total 25.44% of the electorate abstained from voting, the highest abstention rate in a French presidential election since 1969 (when many among the leftwing electorate ignored the contest between Gaullist conservative Georges Pompidou, who won the election, and centre-right candidate Alain Poher).

The abstentions on Sunday were highest among the 18-24 age group, and among the unemployed of all ages.

The proportion of blank votes and spoiled votes cast represented 11.5% of the electorate, a record since the establishment of the presidential system introduced with the Fifth Republic in 1958.

The total number of abstentions, blank and spoiled votes represented 34% of the electorate, which in turn means that Emmanuel Macron was elected by just 43.6% of people eligible to vote.

A poll by Ipsos/Sopra Steria commissioned by France Télévisions estimated that of those who voted for Macron, 43% did so primarily to defeat far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.

Le Pen, although defeated, garnered 10.6 million votes, which is a record for her Front National (FN) party. That was 3 million more votes than her first-round score, and was double the score of her father and FN founder Jean-Marie Le Pen in his shock second-round contest with Jacque Chirac in 2002, when he attracted 5.5 million votes (but was largely defeated).

Meanwhile, Emmanuel Macron came first in 99 of France’s 101 départements (equivalent to counties), while Marine Le Pen led in the northern départements of Aisne and Pas-de-Calais. Macron’s highest scores were in large towns and cities (he garnered about 90% of the vote in Paris) while Le Pen’s best scores were in smaller urban areas and rural zones.

A national detail of the vote (who scored what and where) can be found on Mediapart's interactive map of the results (in French) here.

-------------------------

Our Sunday night reporting ends here. The full official results will be added on Monday. Thank you for following us.

01.15am: More reactions from European leaders tonight on Emmanuel Macron’s victory: Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras described the result as “an inspiration for France and Europe”, perhaps in no small part because of Macron’s belief that the Greek debt needs to be restructured.

“A hope rises in Europe,” said Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni in a message posted on Twitter.

“Let’s cooperate in France and in Spain for a stable Europe, prosperous and more integrated,” said Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

Meanwhile, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel described Macron’s victory as “a clear rejection of a project of withdrawal dangerous for Europe, which triumphs this evening”.

00.45am: There were a number of clashes tonight between groups of anti-Macron protestors and police in Paris and other French towns and cities. In the Ménilmontant district in the north-east of the capital, a group of several hundred people were involved in street clashes with anti-riot police who used tear gas to disperse the crowd. In the eastern city of Strasbourg, far-left demonstrators fought with far-right supporters, while in Nantes, north-west France, police used teargas to disperse a demonstration by several hundred calling for Macron to resign.  

More peaceful protests were held in Lyon, Caen and Tours, where small groups of demonstrators marched with banners including “Neither Macron nor le Pen” and “Ungovernable Generation”.

00.15am: Yannick Jadot, who was nominated as presidential candidate for the principal French Green party, EELV, before pulling out of the race in favour of the leftist socialist candidate Benoît Hamon, tonight launched a withering attack on Emmanuel Macron’s performance in front of his supporters in the courtyard of the Louvre, the former royal palace which now houses the celebrated museum. The courtyard includes the museum’s pyramid-like extension built in glass and designed by American architect I.M.Pei. “It was a pharaoh who was there in front of his pyramid,” said Jadot, mocking Macron’s appearance. “It is Tutanmacron, alone, with staggering images that don’t relate to [those] of a renewed, appeased, horizontal republic,” he told radio station France-Info. “There are lots of personality cults.”

11.45pm: “We will concede nothing to fear, to division, to lies, to irony, to connivance, to the taste for decline or defeat,” concluded Macron, warning that “It will not be easy every day”, before launching into a rendering of the French national anthem, the Marseillaise, alongside his wife Brigitte and his close entourage who had joined him on the stage.  

11.30pm: In the majestic courtyard of the Louvre, Emmanuel Macron had addressed his rejoicing, flag-waving supporters, acutely aware of his need to win a Parliamentary majority. “The task that awaits us, my dear fellow citizens, is immense, and will begin tomorrow,” he told them. “It will demand moralising public life, to defend our democratic vitality, to reinforce our economy, to build the new protections of the world that surrounds us, to give a place to each, to reforge our Europe and to ensure the security of all the French people.”
 
“It will demand the building, as of tomorrow, a true majority, a strong majority. That’s what the country aspires to, what the country deserves.”

11.29pm: Time for a quick recap. Emmanuel Macron is on course for a major victory over his far-right rival Marine Le Pen in the second round of the election, with estimates suggesting the margin could be as high as 66% to 34%. That level of win is larger than most polls had predicted and sets the new centrist president up well for his the coming Parliamentary elections in June. In a victory speech Macron, at 39 the youngest president under the Fifth Republic, said he would protect the republic and said the French people were now reunited.
But already there are clear signs of the difficulties that lie ahead for the Macron presidency. The turnout was, at an estimated 75%, the lowest in a presidential election since 1969 and the number of spoilt or blank ballot papers was 4.2 million, the biggest ever in such an election.

Meanwhile the mainstream Right is already making clear its intention to fight hard to win an overall majority in the National Assembly in the June elections. If they do, this would mean they would effectively control the domestic agenda under a prime minister from their ranks. The defeated Front National, too, have claimed they aim to be Macron's main opposition party. Meanwhile Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his France Insoumise ('France Unbowed') movement aim to be the dominant voice on the Left for the Parliamentary elections, even as the defeated socialist candidate in the first round, Benoît Hamon, made a plea for an alliance on the Left, presumably with Mélenchon and his supporters. The big question for Macron will be how long the centre can hold; will his victory splinter the parties on the Left and Right to blunt their effectiveness in June's elections, or will they be galvanised by defeat and squeeze his En Marche! (On the move!') movement from both sides?

11.15pm: Benoît Hamon, the Socialist Party candidate defeated in the first round, issued a statement via Facebook this evening, looking ahead to the legislative elections in June when, like all the parties of the Left and Right tonight, he and his colleagues on the leftwing of the party hope to salvage a counter-weight to Macron’s victory. “If the Left comes together, if it rallies together in all its diversity, it could be a majority in the National Assembly [the French lower house], be certain of it,” said Hamon.

He expressed his concern at the “unprecedented, historic score of Marine Le Pen” and called for “the establishment of a common platform of all the Left to govern, as of June 18th”, the date of the second and final round of the legislative elections, in a clear appeal to the radical-left movement of Jean-Luc Mélenchon who garnered three times as many votes as Hamon in the first round. “Tonight we have mounted a barrier against the worst, tomorrow we must build the best,” added Hamon.

11pm: Macron also addressed those who do not share his political programme but who voted for him to defeat far-right leader Marine Le Pen. “I want to say a word for the French [electorate] who voted simply to defend the republic against extremism,” he said. “I understand our disagreements, I will respect them but I will remain faithful to this engagement: I will protect the republic.”
 
He then spoke out to those who had voted for Le Pen. “I want to say a word to those who voted for Ms Le Pen, sometimes with conviction. I respect them, but I will do everything over the coming five years so that they no longer have any reason to for the extreme. This evening, there is only the reunited people of France.”
 
Then, addressing his supporters, he added: “What you represent tonight at the Louvre is a fervour, an enthusiasm, the energy of the people of France.”

10.50pm: Surrounded by a heavy police escort, and trailed by motorbike-bound media, Emmanuel Macron arrived at the Louvre courtyard, serenaded with the “Anthem of Europe” (Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”), to address the crowds of supporters, estimated to number 15,000, braving a chilly Paris night.

“Thank you my friends,” he said. “Thank you for being here tonight. You are tens of thousands, but I can only see [clearly] a few faces. Thank you for being here, for having fought with courage and well-meaning over so many months. Because yes, tonight you have won. France has won.”

10.37pm: With the Socialist Party facing implosion from its internal divisions between its Right and Left, a number of figures on the rightwing of the party tonight welcomed Macron’s presidency, no doubt hoping to be included, in one role or another, within the maverick new centrist political power structure. Agriculture minister and government spokesman Stéphane Le Foll, a close ally of President Hollande, said he hoped that the Socialist Party would take part in “the perspectives opened up by Macron’s election” although he added that he would not go “begging” to the new president’s movement En Marche (On the move!).
 
Socialist education minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, who had actively campaigned for her party’s defeated leftist candidate Benoît Hamon, told France 2 TV channel, “I believe that Emmanuel Macron will know how to meet the requirements of the presidential office”, but insisted: “There is no question of me leaving the Socialist Party.”

10.36pm: Even before all the votes have been counted in this presidential election, the battlelines are being drawn ahead of the Parliamentary elections in June. Jean-Luc Mélenchon has already made it clear he wants his France insoumise ('France Unbowed') movement to lead the Left's challenge in those elections. Meanwhile the mainstream conservative Right – with a few exceptions including Bruno Le Maire (see below) – is making it clear they want to be the main party of opposition to Macron and his En Marche! movement.

François Baroin, who is in charge of the conservative Les Républicains' parliamentary campaign, said that he would “fight alongside all our candidates ...for an absolute majority”. Baroin said that Macron appeared not to have grasped that he had supported the centrist in the second round simply to keep Le Pen from winning. “I don't think he's read or understood everything, I am ready to [become prime minister] ..if we get an absolute majority in the National Assembly,” said Baroin.

His colleague and vice-president of Les Républicains, Laurent Wauquiez, said Macron's victory did not elicit “enthusiasm” and now was not the time for people on the Right to resign or to compromise with the new president. “A change of power is still possible,” he said, alluding to the possibility of the Right winning a Parliamentary majority and then running the government.

And although the secretary general of Les Républicains, Bernard Accoyer, congratulated Emmanuel Macron on his win, he warned that the new president was at the head of the country “divided like never before”. He said the Right would fight in the coming elections for “clarity” over Macron's “ambiguity” and said that the chance of a “genuine change of government” was in the hands of the French people in June. He added: “The Parliamentary elections will be the mother of all battles.”

10.21: Radical-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who was defeated in the first round of the election as candidate of the France insoumise ('France unbowed') movement but who came in an impressive fourth place, well ahead of the Socialist Party candidate, this evening called on his supporters to mobilise for the Parliamentary elections in June to elect parliament’s 577 members.
 
“A new parliamentary majority around us is possible,” he said in a brief address. “The legislative elections must show that, after a vote of refusal and fear, it is time to make a positive choice.”

“Once again, despite everything, through abstentions, blank and [deliberately] spoiled votes, as also by votes in the name of Mr Macron, our country has massively rejected the far-right because it is foreign to the republican identity of France,” continued Mélenchon, who had refused between the two rounds to call on his supporters to vote for Macron.
 
Mélenchon, whose ambition is to establish leadership of the Left in the June elections, said the programme of the “new monarch-president is understood”, dismissing it as “a war against the country’s acquired social rights and ecological irresponsibility”.   

“Tonight comes to an end the most lamentable presidency under the Fifth republic which will have destroyed practically every confidence it had around it,” he added.

10.05pm: So who will be Emmanuel Macron's new prime minister? So far there is no clear sign, though Macron recently said that he had two people in mind, a man and a woman. Some names on the Right have been mentioned, such as former minister Xavier Bertrand (see below). But given that the Right's main party has tonight made clear it will ostracise anyone who joins Macron's team, that could be a risky gambit for anyone of that political leaning. The names of some other leading male contenders are socialist MP and close Macron ally Richard Ferrand, 54, defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, 69, seen as a safe pair of hands, the veteran centrist François Bayrou, whose support for Macron helped the latter get through to the second round, and socialist mayor of Lyon and long-time ally Gérard Collomb. As for women, one name that did the rounds was the former boss of the employers' federation MEDEF, Laurence Parisot, but her apparent and very public keenness for the job saw her slapped down by Macron's aides.

10.01pm: Just returning to the theme of Macron's mandate and the level of support he has received...according to an estimate by pollsters Ipsos the French electorate has divided up in the following way: Emmanuel Macron has got 20.6 million votes, Marine Le Pen 10.7 million, abstentions number 12 million, with 4.2 million voters either spoiling their ballot paper or leaving it blank. This is not the final tally but the figures are unlikely to change dramatically from this.

9.52pm: Time for a little light relief, perhaps, in the form of a cartoon from Mediapart’s collaboration with artistic commentators battrelacompagne. Here the TV viewer is saying he doesn't understand....does Macron represent a change of government in France or not?

9.50pm: Meanwhile, yet more from the new president-elect. “This evening, it is to you all who I address myself, you altogether, the people of France,” continued Macron. “We have duties towards our country. We are the heirs of a great history. This history and this message, we must first of all transmit to our children, and carry them towards the future and give them a new vigour.”
 
“I will not allow myself to be halted by any obstacle. I will act with determination, and with respect for everyone. In work, schooling, in culture, we will build a better future.”
 
Macron said he paid tribute to outgoing president François Hollande, who he will join for May 8th VE Day ceremonies in Paris tomorrow.
 
“I will fight with all my strength against the divisions that undermine us and bring us down,” he continued. “It is thus that we can give back to the French people […] the opportunities that France owes to them. Let us love France. For the five years to come I will, with humility, devotion and determination, serve [France] in your name. Long live the republic, long live France.”

9.47 pm: Amid the good news for Macron and his supporters there are one or two more troubling aspects to today's victory. One is that if, as predicted, the turnout was around 75% this would be the lowest in a presidential election since 1969. Moreover, there appear to have been an estimated 4.2 million blank or spoilt ballot papers, a record for a presidential election. However, these are projected and not confirmed figures.

9.40pm: British prime minister Theresa May said she “warmly congratulated” France’s new president on his victory, while European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said the result demonstrated that France’s “happy” voters had voted for “a European future”.

9.34pm: Macron's win has been widely welcomed around the world. A spokesperson for German chancellor Angela Merkel said the pro-EU centrist's win was a “victory for a strong and united Europe and for Franco-German friendship”.

US President Donald Trump said: “Congratulations to Emmanuel Macron on his big win today as the next President of France. I look very much forward to working with him!”

9.30pm: The olive branch towards Macron that was held out by the Right in the form of conservative former minister Bruno Le Maire, who said he was willing to work with the new president (see below), was abruptly snatched away by another senior party figure François Baroin. Baroin, who campaigned for defeated conservative candidate François Fillon and who is close to former president Nicolas Sarkozy, ruled out any idea of working in partnership with Macron – and said anyone in the main conservative party who sought such a deal would be opposed. “If Bruno Le Maire or any other candidate enters the government, and if he is a candidate in the Parliamentary elections, he will be opposed by a Les Républicains or [centre-right] UDI candidate. If Bruno Le Maire joins the government in a dozen days, then he has in effect left the [political] family, he will in effect belong to [Macron's movement] En Marche!”

9.20pm: In a brief televised address this evening, Emmanuel Macron, speaking in a solemn tone, gave his “profound thanks” for his victory. “It is a great honour and a great responsibility,” he said. “I want to say to you ‘thank you’”.
 
“It is to all of you, citizens of this country, to who I want to address myself, whatever your choice was. I do not underrate any economic difficulty, nor democratic impasse, nor the moral weakening of the country. I know the anger, the anxiety, the doubts that a number among you have expressed.”

“This evening, it is to you all who I address myself, you altogether, the people of France,” continued Macron. “We have duties towards our country. We are the heirs of a great history. This history and this message, we must first of all transmit to our children, and carry them towards the future and give them a new vigour.”

9.19pm: Jean-Christophe Lagarde, president of the centre-right UDI, said that his first reaction was one of “relief” at the vote. “The worst has been avoided for our country and Europe. The far-right candidate who in the final days of the campaign displayed her real brutality, inconsistencies and incompetence, was beaten, and well beaten.' He continued: “I'm obviously not happy that millions of our fellow citizens voted for the far right and I think we should listen to them.” Looking ahead to the Parliamentary elections Lagarde said he would be going out to support their candidates as part of an electoral pact with the conservative Les Républicains so that “France can choose a genuine economic, social and European alternative.”

9.10pm: “What Emmanuel Macron has done is absolutely extraordinary,” said Gérard Collomb, longserving socialist mayor of France’s second-largest city, Lyon, and a close and high-profile Macron ally, speaking on TV channel France 2. “One year ago it was a project, a hope for a few who, rallying together elected representatives, local politicians, and a certain number of the young, looked forward to a better future for France […]  He knows one thing, there must be a rallying together […] And we will tomorrow bring [people] together on precise projects. Today we are living in a globalised world, which must be taken into account.”

9.07pm: Former conservative minister and current president of the Hauts-de-France region in northern France, Xavier Bertrand, who some see as a possible prime minister under Macron, called on the new president “not to forget, at any time in his presidency, the anger and concern” of the French people. “It's a certain idea of France that once again won through today. But many French people chose to vote for the far right. Many, too, chose not to vote or to leave their ballot paper blank. The France that is suffering cannot wait any longer. This evening's result obliges everyone to remain humble.”

9pm: A reminder that if the early predictions are right – and the French pollsters have been pretty accurate so far in this election – then centrist Emmanuel Macron is heading for a very big win over his rival Marine Le Pen, picking up something like 65% of the vote. Le Pen supporters will point to the fact that in 2002 her father only managed 17.8% of the vote against Jacques Chirac, and that daughter Marine looks set to nearly double that. But at the start of the second round campaign Macron's lead was down to just 59% at one point, and the fact that he has managed to increase it in the final week – partly thanks to Le Pen's disastrous performance in their TV debate – will give him some impetus with the Parliamentary elections looming large in June. Against that, the apparently high abstention rate of perhaps 25% suggests that many people who normally vote were put off by both candidates in the second round.

The bigger question is to what extent Macron's victory herald a major and lasting realignment of French politics. Certainly both the Left and the Right seem split over their reaction to the centrist's win, with some in the two camps warmly welcoming it, while others have been much more wary. For Macron a split in both the Socialist Party and the main conservative party Les Républicains should help him in next month's Parliamentary elections.

8.56pm: Meanwhile, Socialist Party leader Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, described the result as “disconcerting, even worrying, over which no-one can be satisfied”, referring to the unprecedented score of the far-right. Cambadélis faces an uphill struggle to maintain his leadership of a party which appears likely to lose a significant number of seats in the forthcoming legislative elections in June, after which its very future will be on the line with the bitter divisions between those, like him, on the Right of the party and its leftwing, represented by its defeated candidate Benoît Hamon.
 
8.55pm: Emmanuel Macron’s campaign team told AFP that he and Marine Le Pen held a “brief” and “polite” phone conversation this evening.
8.45pm: Macron’s centre-right ally François Bayrou, who earlier this year joined Macron’s campaign in opposition to the conservative candidate François Fillon, declared tonight that “France sends an incredible message of hope to the world”. 

“I find this result is magnificent and enormously significant, very moving for me, should I add, because it’s a combat that goes back a long way,” he added in an interview with TV channel France 2.  

8.44pm: The hint of politcal realignment seems to be everywhere tonight. On the mainstream Right MP and former minister Bruno Le Maire, a defeated candidate in the conservative primary that was won by François Fillon, made it clear that he would be prepared to work with the new president. “We've entered a new political world this evening, the French have chosen to give themselves hope,” he said. “What's stopping us from working together? Do we want to build or destroy? I've made my choice, I'll do all I can for the general interest and for France to win. What I want is the best for my country and that we roll up our sleeves.”

8.40pm: French environment minister Ségolène Royal, a Socialist Party veteran and President Hollande’s former companion, who had publicly lent her support for Macron, tonight described the latter’s win as “a victory of audacity, of imagination and of the new generation which at last says ‘we can be trusted in’”.

8.40pm: Florian Philippot, vice-president of the FN, told TF1 television that he congratulated Emmanuel Macron and hoped the country would get back on its feet. “Marine Le Pen did indeed call Mr Macron a few minutes ago, which seems only right to me. I very warmly thank our 11 million patriotic voters, which is a record number for us. Today we appear to be the main opposition force to Mr Macron, whose policies are going to be very tough, because he's chosen continuity. I'm very proud of this campaign, we have always spoken about the fundamental issues.”

8.30pm: The Elysée Palace, where outgoing president François Hollande was following the results with his close allies and presidential team, announced tonight that Emmanuel Macron’s landslide victory was greeted with “a burst of applause”.
8.27pm: Le Pen's second round ally Nicolas Dupont-Aignan himself gave Emmanuel Macron a somewhat barbed welcome. “I congratulate the new president. The new president is certainly young but the policies he is going to carry out are very old,” he declared. Nicolas Dupont-Aignan continued: “I note the score and I'm convinced that there is a political reconstruction to be carried out in France. I supported a candidate who was brave. But I'm sure that the French are going to discover that Mr Macron now has a blank cheque and that they are going to pay very dearly for that. We have to fight very hard, particularly in the Parliamentary elections.”

8.25pm: In a statement to press agency AFP shortly after the first exit poll results were announced this evening, Macron declared: “A new page in our long history opens up this evening. I want it to be that of hope and regained confidence.”

8.25pm: Speaking minutes after news of her defeat, Marine Le Pen spoke of building a “new political force” of patriots. “I call on all patriots to join us and to take part in the decisive battle that awaits on from this evening on.” She said: “Through this historic and massive result, the French have made the alliance of patriots the main opposition force.” Is this hinting at the end of the Front National in its current form? After the first-round the defeated sovereignist Nicolas Dupont-Aignan was the only candidate to rally to Le Pen's side for the second round.

8.20pm: As the first estimates gave Emmanuel Macron a sweeping victory over his far-right rival Marine le Pen, the crowds of thousands – many of them young adults – who since the late afternoon were gathered at the Macron campaign’s rallying point at the vast Louvre museum courtyard in central Paris, danced and waved French and European flags in an atmosphere that resembled more a rock concert than a political gathering.

There was a heavy security presence, with dozens of anti-riot police coaches and tight controls of people arriving to join the scene, with ID checks and the presence of sniffer dogs. Earlier in the day police had briefly evacuated the area after a security alert reportedly caused by the discovery of a suspicious object.

Emmanuel Macron is expected to join his supporters there for a victory speech at about 9.30pm, after an earlier TV address. 

8.10pm: Le Pen is said to have conceded defeat to Macron in a telephone call that was “brief and cordial”, according to Le Figaro.

Nicolas Bay, the secretary general of the Front National, said they clearly accepted the decisive manner of the defeat. But he said that the party and Marine Le Pen could take “pleasure” in the large number of people who had voted for the far-right candidate, and promised that the FN would be a strong opposition to the Macron presidency, incommoding at next month' Parliamentary elections. “We're the only ones able to provide that opposition,” he said.

8.05pm: The estimate of the final vote is given by pollsters Elabe at 65.9% for Macron and 34.1% for Le Pen, with Kantar Sofres-Onepoint putting the figures at 65.5% for the centrist and 34.5% for the far-right candidate. Those figures may change a little through the evening but there is no doubting the clear-cut nature of the result.

8pm: Emmanuel Macron is to be the next president of France. The early forecasts based on votes cast in the second round of the election give him a convincing victory with 65.9% of the vote, against 34.1% for his far-right rival Marine Le Pen. At 39 Macron becomes the eight and youngest president under France's Fifth Republic. It is some achievement for a man who was unknown to the public until he was made economy minister in 2014, having previously been François Hollande's deputy chief of staff and before that a merchant banker. His own centrist movement, En Marche! ('On the move!') was only set up in April 2014. The polls had given Macron a clear lead over Le Pen since the first round vote on April 23rd, and that lead has been maintained and extended following their TV debate last week in which the centrist candidate easily eclipsed Le Pen's poor performance. Emmanuel Macron will be formally sworn in as president on or before May 14th, when President Hollande's term of office expires.

7.15pm: The voting booths have now closed in many parts of France and counting has begun there. The only places where voters can still vote – until 8pm – are major cities such as Paris, Lyon and Marseille. The polling firms' forecasts of the final result that will be published at 8pm will be based on actual votes cast in the non-urban areas.

7.10pm: Following reports that some journalists and media outlets had been barred from covering the Front National's electoral gathering this evening in Paris (see below), the newspapers Libération and Le Monde have announced they are boycotting the event out of “solidarity” with their journalist colleagues. The Macron gathering at the Esplanade du Louvre in central Paris ,in contrast, looks like it is attracting a full house of reporters and supporters.

6pm: Just in case the media hasn't got the message...France's electoral watchdog the CNCCEP has warned against the publication of any estimates of today's vote before 8pm local time. The penalty for transgressors is a fine of 75,000 euros.

5.42pm: Based on the current figures, the final turnout for this second round will be about 74%, well below the close to 80% seen in 2012 when François Hollande beat Nicolas Sarkozy. That, at any rate, is the verdict of experts at Ipsos-Steria in a poll jointly commissioned by France Télévisions, Radio France, LCP/Public Sénat, RFI-France 24, Le Point and Le Monde. But the usual health warnings apply – this is just a forecast.

5pm: The turnout rate at 5pm is estimated at 65.3%. Not only is this below the 69.42% turnout at the time in the first round, it is also well below the 71.96% seen in the second round in 2012 at the same period. If, as widely expected, Emmanuel Macron is elected president this evening and if turnout is down by the time the polls close, it will not boost his chances of building political momentum ahead of June's Parliamentary elections. But a word of warning – there are still several hours left for people to vote.

4.45pm: François Hollande has been talking about his reaction to today's vote and how he will look back on his presidency. Speaking at his political stronghold at Tulle in central France, the least-popular president in modern French history was asked by journalists what he would think about once the polls close and the identity of his successor is determined. “Of the French people who are , I hope, going to have the fear that has gripped them taken away, and who at the same time are going to wonder if afterwards there will be action, change, because they expect a lot from presidential elections. On a personal level I will be thinking about all that I have accomplished, of those times spent at the Elysée, at all the joy I have got from serving France.” The president said he would also think of the “sacrifices” that have been made to ensure what he called the country's “recovery”. When asked if he would take a few days holiday when he steps down, President Hollande simply replied: “We'll see.”

4pm: A number of journalists have been refused accreditation to cover the Front National's election gathering this evening at the Chalet du Lac in Paris. Mediapart's specialist reporter on the FN, Marine Turchi, has long been banned by the far-right party, as has the television presenter and journalist Yann Barthès whose 'Quotidien' show is broadcast on TMC. But it appears that journalists from websites Buzzfeed France, Rue89 and Les Jours have also been denied access to tonight's event. The official reason? A lack of space, apparently.

1.50pm: Though we shall know the outcome of the election this evening, the official, definitive results will not be published until 5.30pm on Wednesday, May 10th. They will then be formally proclaimed by the country's highest constitutional authority, the Constitutional Council, on Thursday May 11th. The formal handover of power by President François Hollande to the new president must take place by midnight on May 14th, when Hollande's mandate as president formally expires. This handover could take place on the same day, which would be the first time this has taken place on a Sunday under the Fifth Republic. It is possible, however, that the ceremony occurs on Saturday May 13th.

1pm: The turnout as of midday in France was 28.3% according to estimations. This is broadly the same as in the first round by the same period, and slightly down on the second rounds of the elections in 2007 and 2012. Both candidates, Emmanual Macron and Marine Le Pen, have already voted, as has the outgoing president François Hollande.

A brief guide to the election

How it works:

The French presidential elections are held in two rounds, the first took place on Sunday April 23rd and the second takes place on Sunday May 7th. The two top-scoring candidates in the first round, the centrist Emmanuel Macron, with 24% and the far right Front National's Marine Le Pen on 21.3%, went through to today's knockout second round, when the candidate with the highest score is elected as France’s new president for a five-year term.

The French electorate is made up of 47 million, the majority in mainland France but partly also in France’s overseas territories (which began voting on Saturday).

Polling booths are open until 8pm in France’s major cities, while others close at 7pm.

What follows:

Legislative elections will follow on June 11th and 18th to decide the makeup of the new French parliament’s 577 seats.

Opinion poll forecasts:

The opinion polls over the two weeks of the second round campaign have all given Emmanuel Macron a clear lead over far-right Front National leader Marine Le Pen. Though some polls gave Le Pen a 41% share of voting intentions at the end of Macron's first, troubled week of the campaign, they have been moving in his favour since their TV debate last Wednesday. The average of all polls suggest a 62% to 38% split in Macron's favour, but some polls put him as high as 65%.
 

A short outline of what the candidates stand for:

Centrist Emmanuel Macron, a former investment banker who became economy minister in the outgoing socialist government until he stepped down to launch his presidential bid as head of the independent movement En Marche! (On the move!), is firmly pro-European and pro-euro who wants to introduce pro-business liberal economic reforms, tempered by a progressive approach to some social issues. At 39 the youngest of any of the candidates, he promises to shake up France’s staid traditional political scene, claiming a ‘new way’ that he says is neither Left nor Right. Though he had a shaky start to the second round, amid claims of triumphalism and complacency, he has started pulling further ahead of Le Pen in the polls after their TV debate in which he showed much greater mastery of detail and policy.

Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen promises to lock down immigration, to call a referendum on France’s exit from the European Union, a crackdown on Islamist movements and the introduction of national preference giving priority to French nationals over others in areas such as employment, public housing and social benefits. Her campaigning rhetoric was marked by thinly veiled anti-Muslim sentiment, and open rejection of offering haven to refugees. She is widely seen as having performed poorly in the pair's head-to-head TV debate, focusing on attacking Macron and not appearing to have a detail grasp of detailed policy.