Welcome to Mediapart’s coverage in English of the decisive second round of voting this Sunday in the French presidential elections.
We present a brief guide to how the French presidential election works, which will remain at the bottom of this page, followed by the latest results and reactions as they come in through the evening. The latest posts are published at the top of the page. To find them, please regularly refresh this page. All indicated times are local (ECT).
-----------------------
12.10am: So there we have it; Emmanuel Macron has been elected president of France for five more years after a comfortable, large victory over Marine Le Pen, who nonetheless managed the highest score a far-right candidate has achieved in a French presidential election second round. With the final results still not in, it looked as if the centre-right incumbent picked up just over 58% of the popular vote, with his far-right rival managing just under 42%. The other key figure of the evening, however, was that of the number of voters who abstained, and that was in the order of 28%, a huge number for a presidential election in France.
In his brief victory speech tonight Emmanuel Macron addressed those who had voted for his rival, those who had abstained and also the millions of leftwing voters who had backed him simply to stop any chance of Le Pen winning. In an address that displayed an uncharacteristic touch of emotion but was short on content, Macron promised a “new era” and pledged that the new presidency would not be a continuation of the old one but a fresh start in a bid to “do better”, as he acknowledged the “divisions” that beset the country. That new presidency starts on May 13th.
However, it remains to be seen just how much he is able to do. Already, as the first projections of the presidential result came in, his political opponents were turning their thoughts to the Parliamentary elections that take place on June 12th and June 19th. These elections to the National Assembly will determine how many of Macron's reforms are likely to be passed and even the make-up of his government. Macron's La République en Marche party won a convincing majority in 2017 but that majority has slowly ebbed away and the party has failed to put down strong roots locally around the country (see the latest polls below).
Radical-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who as its candidate came a close third behind Le Pen in the first round earlier this month, and who has floated the idea of becoming prime minister if the plans for a 'Popular Union' on the Left go well in June, told supporters this evening: “The ‘third round’ begins tonight. The Parliamentary elections are on June 12th and 19th, you can defeat Monsieur Macron and choose a different path. Another world is still possible if you elect a majority for the new Popular Union.” Meanwhile, Macron's defeated rival Marine Le Pen said: “Tonight we launch the great battle of the legislative elections.”
So one campaign ends and another one begins, with all eyes now firmly on June's Parliamentary elections.
11.45pm: Two separate opinion surveys published tonight found a majority of those questioned hope that Emmanuel Macron’s LREM party will not regain a parliamentary majority in June’s legislative elections. Pollster Opinionway found that 63% were opposed to giving the re-elected president a majority, while 35% were in favour of handing him a majority (2% had no opinion).
In another survey, Ipsos, asking the same question but differently, found 56% hoped the LREM would lose the June elections, another 20% hoped the party would win them, while another 24% thought it would be preferable in the interest of political stability that Macron’s party was returned with a parliamentary majority.
11.35pm: Brigitte Macron spoke to journalists on the Champ-de-Mars and thanked French voters for trusting in her husband once more. “He has an ambition for France, I know where he wants to go and he is going to do everything to get there. And I hope that people will understand him, I hope they'll follow him, I have huge confidence in him,” she told France 2. She also told TF1 television about her own plans for the next five years. “I'm going to do what I've done for the last five years: reply to French people who write to me, continue with the Hospitals of France Foundation [of which she is chair], continue to give lessons [adult education lessons] and help fight bullying. I want to step up that work enormously because there are too many young people who speak to me about it. So I'm going to see them. I've made a promise to them,” she said.
11.30pm: More from Ipsos on its estimations of how the electorate of candidates defeated in the first round switched over their votes in today’s final round. We reported earlier on the estimations concerning the electorate of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Concerning Éric Zemmour, the maverick far-right candidate and Le Pen rival who was eliminated after arriving fourth in the first round (with a 7.07% share of the vote), he had called upon his supporters to vote for Le Pen. According to Ipsos, 73% of them followed that call today, while 17% made a blank vote or abstained, and 10% voted for Macron.
As for those who voted for the conservative candidate Valérie Pécresse in the first round, when she garnered just 4.78% of the vote, Ipsos found that 53% of them voted for Macron, as she had urged, while 29% voted blank or abstained, and 18% voted for Le Pen (in 2017, after the first round defeat of the then conservative candidate, François Fillon, 48% of those who had voted for him voted for Macron in the second round, while another 20% voted for Le Pen).
Surprisingly, Ipsos found that among those who in this year’s first round voted for EELV green party candidate Yannick Jadot, 6% today voted for Le Pen. Unsurprisingly, another 65% followed Jadot’s call to vote for Macron (against Le Pen), and another 29% voted blank or abstained.
10.57pm: It seems some visitors to the Champ-de-Mars where Emmanuel Macron gave his victory speech this evening were somewhat underwhelmed by what they heard and found. As the French anthem La Marseillaise brought an end to the president's speech one supporter asked in a loud voice: “Is that all?” Another sniffed: “I thought it would be longer”. Meanwhile a Swiss family visiting the French capital for the weekend expressed surprise at the scene as people drifted away. “I was expecting something rather bigger,” said the father. “There's no one here.”
10.55pm: Several French trades unions have tonight expressed relief at Marine Le Pen’s defeat.
“The worst was avoided today,” tweeted Laurent Berger, general secretary of the CFDT union, one of the largest in France. “But close to 42% of votes for the far-right means that nothing can, nor should, be like before.”
Laurent Escure, general secretary of trade union confederation UNSA (National Union of Autonomous Trade Unions) tweeted: “The republic is safe. And to fight for social justice in a democratic framework remains possible. But a vote for the republic which is the majority [vote] among the eldest [electorate] should question every democrat.”
10.50pm: A woman tipped by some to be the next prime minister, labour minister Elisabeth Borne, spoke of her “emotion” at Emmanuel Macron's win. “We've been out on the ground for weeks. Emmanuel Macron's project looked to the future, he's very European and I'm very happy that he's been put at the head of the Republic,” she told BFMTV news channel.
10.44pm: As we've already seen from Liberation's front page, the press is being far from euphoric in its coverage of Macron's victory. On its front page the French Catholic daily La Croix shows a photo of the re-elected president with the words “It all remains to be done”. While the headline in the French-language Swiss newspaper Le Temps states simply “The challenge”.
10.35pm: Radical-left LFI party Member of Parliament Adrien Quatennens declared that “Emmanuel Macron has contributed to, has worked towards, a climbing of the far-right in order to obtain the second round [duel] he wanted”. He predicted a victory for a leftwing coalition in June. “The political tension will not be extinguished,” he said.
10.30pm: More reactions from the Left tonight. “The worse was avoided for France this evening,” said Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel, who garnered 2.28% of the first-round vote, and who has joined calls for a leftwing coalition for the legislative elections in June. “Thanks to the mobilisation of millions of our compatriots, the representative of the far-right will not be able to accede to the Élysée and set up an authoritarian power […] The president, his ministers and his government must not become bigheads. 58% of the French did not vote for the project of [Emmanuel Macron’s party] the LREM – to believe that would be wrong.”
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist Party’s candidate in the first round, whose disastrous score of 1.74% was the party’s worst-ever result, also called for a coalition of the Left for the legislative elections. “I call on all the forces of the democratic Left who today stood in the way of the worst [outcome] to unite to build a new Left and to lead tomorrow’s combats, beginning of course with the legislative elections.”
Yannick Jadot, who ran as the EELV Green party candidate in the first round, in which he came sixth after garnering 4.63% of the vote, tweeted: “Thanks to all those who stood in the way of the far-right. The worst [outcome] is avoided but the country is more divided than ever. For the legislative elections, let’s construct for the best: an alternative for the climate, social justice and democracy. Everything remains to be done.”
10.28pm: The final comments from that Macron speech. The head of state urged the country to be demanding and ambitious and said the war in Ukraine showed the need for France to be able to show its strength in all areas.
He continued: “We have to be respectful and welcoming because our country is full of so many doubts and divisions. No one will be left by the wayside. It's down to us together to work for this unity with which we can live more happily in France. The years ahead certainly won't be calm, but they will be historic and will be be able to write them for our generation!
“This new era will not be a continuity of the presidency that's just come to a end, but will mark a renewal in order to do better. All of us will have to get involved. It's that which makes the French people this unique force that I love so deeply, so intensely, and whom I am so proud to serve once more.”
10.17pm: More words from that Macron speech. On a more upbeat note he went on: “Today, you have chosen a humanist project, one that is ambitious for the independence of our country, for Europe. A European, social, ecological project based on work and creativity, a project that involves liberating our academic, cultural and entrepreneurial strengths. A project that I want to pursue with energy for the coming years by being a custodian of the divisions and differences that have been expressed and ensuring each day to respect everyone by continuing to work for a fairer society and for equality between men and women.”
10.07pm: Mathieu Gallard, research director of pollster Ipsos, has released estimations of how those who voted for the radical-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the first round, when he came a close third behind Marine Le Pen, voted in the second round. According to those Ipsos estimations, 42% voted for Macron, 17% voted for Le Pen while another 17% chose blank or spoilt votes, and 24% abstained from voting.
10.05pm: More from Macron. In a speech noted for greater emotion that is usual from Macron – at one point he appeared to hold back tears as he spoke of his “pride” at being re-elected to “serve” his country once more – the president also spoke to the many millions who had abstained from the vote, around 28% of the electorate. “Their silence showed a refusal to choose, to which we must also respond,” he said. To whistles from some supporters, he also spared a thought for those who had voted for Marine Le Pen. Addressing his audience he said: “From the start I have asked you not to whistle because from now on I am no longer a candidate from one camp but a president for everyone.” Macron continued: “I know that many of our compatriots chose the far-right, the anger and disagreements which led them to vote for that project oblige us to find a response; that will be our responsibility and our project. We must respond effectively to the anger that's been expressed.”
9.55pm: Despite Le Pen’s resounding defeat, her estimated share of around 42% of the vote today is the highest score a far-right candidate has achieved in a French presidential election second round. Interestingly, she came first in several overseas French territories. In the Indian Ocean island of La Réunion, she beat Macron with almost 60% of the vote, according to local media.
Le Pen is estimated to have come well ahead of Macron in the French Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe (69.6%) and Martinique (60.87%), and also in French Guyana (60.7%), where radical-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon had managed a high score in first-round voting.
9.52pm: Speaking to his supporters after his victory, Emmanuel Macron thanked those who had placed their trust in him to push forward his project for “a more independent, stronger France, to help bring our plans to fruition, and to make France a great environmental nation”.
But he was quick to acknowledge that many had voted against Marine Le Pen rather than for him. “I know that many of my compatriots voted to keep out the ideas of the far-right. I want to thank them and tell them that I am aware that this vote places an obligation on me in the years to come. I am the custodian of their attachment to the Republic.”
9.41pm: Emmanuel Macron arrived for his speech on foot, walking hand in hand with his wife Brigitte Macron and surrounded by young people, with Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy' – the European anthem - in the background. It was a joyful but more subdued arrival than five years ago when he strode in a solitary but determined figure.
9.40pm: Marine Le Pen’s father Jean-Marie Le Pen, the far-right negationist founder and former leader of the Front National, and who became estranged from his daughter after she excluded him from the party, which she took over as leader in 2011 and later renamed as the RN, has also been speaking tonight. “My daughter knows my heart beats for her and for all the militants who sacrificed themselves for this campaign,” he declared.
9.35pm: As we wait to hear President Macron's words, the pollsters suggest that his win is slightly greater than earlier stated. Pollsters Ipsos-Sopra Steria say Macron has obtained 58.8% of the votes, against 41.2% for Marine Le Pen.
9.29pm: Emmanuel Macron's convoy has just arrived in the Champs-de-Mars in central Paris ahead of his victory speech. The tone of his comments will be important, given that it is clear many of the voters who have elected him did so to keep out Marine Le Pen, rather than out of support for him. See Mediapart's earlier article on this here.
9.22pm: One of the forgotten voices of this election, Valérie Pécresse, candidate for the conservative Les Républicains who picked up a miserable 4.78% in the first round, said that Emmanuel Macron had “political momentum” and “a solid legitimacy”. She said: “The French people didn't want to give a tight victory but a strong mandate to the president of the Republic.” But she added: “[His] victory must not mask the divisions in our country that led Marine Le Pen to an unprecedented score.”
9.15pm: Meanwhile, several European government leaders also congratulated Emmanuel Macron on his victory, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson who sent a message written in French. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told Macron that “your voters have today addressed a strong engagement to Europe”. Italian prime Minister Mario Draghi said Macron’s re-election was “excellent news for Europe”, while Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said “democracy has won, Europe has won”.
9.10pm: More expressions of relief from senior European figures tonight. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, congratulated the president on his re-election and said that she was pleased she could “continue with our excellent cooperation … together we will make France and Europe move forward”. The president of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola said she was pleased to be able to continue her cooperation with France in its presidency of the EU Council and, more broadly, to face up to the “challenges of an ever more uncertain and worrying world”. She added: “A strong Europe needs a strong France.”
9.08pm: More from Zemmour, who tonight called for a “national bloc” for the legislative elections. “Do we want to give full powers to Emmanuel Macron and Jean-Luc Mélenchon?” he asked. “The national bloc must unite and come together. It is for that that I call for a national union for the legislative elections. We must forget our quarrels and unite our forces. It’s possible, it’s indispensable, it is our duty.”
9.03pm: Left-leaning French daily Libération has tonight presented its front page for Monday morning. The headline, above a photo of Emmanuel Macron, reads as a reminder to the re-elected president that his victory tonight owes much to all those who voted to keep Le Pen out, rather than keep him in. “Macron re-elected,” it reads, “Thanks to who?”
9pm: Éric Zemmour, the far-right polemicist who was eliminated in the first round, spoke of his “disappointment” and “sadness” at Marine Le Pen's defeat, or more precisely at Emmanuel Macron's win. For in his reaction to the election result the creator of the Reconquête party was unsparing in his criticism of Marine Le Pen's failed attempt to win. “Alas, it's the eighth time that defeat has hit the name Le Pen,” he said, referring to the succession of failed presidential bids by Marine Le Pen's father Jean-Marie Le Pen over many years. “I've seen this defeat coming for many years and ... I did all I could to avoid this result but I didn't succeed.” However, Zemmour said that he was not “fatalistic” and made it clear his party would be fighting in the forthcoming Parliamentary elections. “We'll fight for our ideas in each down and village in France,” he said.
8.52pm: Radical-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who as its candidate came a close third behind Le Pen in the first round earlier this month, and who has over recent days also been focussing on the forthcoming legislative elections, even positioning himself as a possible prime minister if his party and leftwing allies, joined in a so-called ‘popular union’, obtain a majority in the elections in June, has also spoken tonight. “The urns have decided,” he said. “Madame Le Pen is defeated. France has clearly refused to hand her a future, and that’s very good news. Monsieur Macron is the most badly elected president of the Fifth Republic […] He floats in an ocean of abstentions, of blank and spoiled votes.”
“To everyone, I say ‘Don’t resign yourselves to it’. On the contrary, enter into action, clearly, massively. Democracy can massively give us the means to change direction. The ‘third round’ begins tonight. The legislative elections are on June 12th and 19th, you can defeat Monsieur Macron and choose a different path. Another world is still possible if you elect a majority for the new Popular Union.”
8.50pm: An indication of the relief unfurling across Europe at Macron's clear-cut win; the president of the European Central Bank, former French minister and former boss of the IMF Christine Lagarde, quickly Tweeted her “warm congratulations” to Emmanuel Macron whom she praised for his “strong leadership” which was “essential in these uncertain times”.
8.40pm: Gabriel Attal, a familiar figure on French TV screens as the current government's official spokesperson, gave a measured welcome to Emmanuel Macron's win, once again highlighting the importance of June's Parliamentary elections. “I'm happy for our country and I welcome this result with a sense of gratitude and responsibility. Gratitude because the French people have decided to choose Emmanuel Macron rather than Marine Le Pen, and that constitutes an historic victory in the history of the Fifth Republic,” he told FT1 television. “To go with this historic result there is a sense of historic responsibility, because we are clear about the political context, Marine Le Pen's score and that this compels us to protect the French people further. The Parliamentary elections will be very important to enable the president to act,” he added.
8.32pm: In her speech tonight, Le Pen has turned her focus on to the legislative elections to be held in June. “Tonight we launch the great battle of the legislative elections. I will lead this battle alongside [RN vice president] Jordan Bardella, with all those who had the courage to oppose Emmanuel Macron in the second round,” she said. “[…] The historic score of this evening situates our camp in an excellent situation to obtain a large number of Members of Parliament this June.”
8.26pm: Le Pen: “The game has not quite been played out yet, because in a few weeks there will be legislative elections. The risk of seeing Macron taking hold, in a mechanical manner, of all the legislative and executive powers is high. It’s a prospect that no patriot can accept.”
8.25pm: An estimate from pollsters Ifop for TF1 television suggests that Macron will get 58% of the vote, or 17 million votes in total. In contrast in 2017 he won with just over 66% or 20.7 million votes.
8.21pm: Despite the clear-cut win, there was some disquiet from Macron's supporters about the relatively high score by the far-right. “I feel joy and satisfaction, it's a clear victory with a large gap, and that means something,” said Europe minister Clément Beaune. But he told France 2 television: “The far right is above 40%.” And he said that this victory by Emmanuel Macron now needed to be followed up with success at the Parliamentary elections in June.
8.20pm: More of that speech by Le Pen: “Determined, we are, more than ever […] Buried, we have been – one thousand times and one thousand times they got it wrong. In this defeat, I cannot stop myself from feeling a form of hope.”
8.15pm: Marine Le Pen has begun speaking at her HQ, to a backdrop of cheering from the RN party faithful. “Despite two weeks of unfair, brutal and violent methods, the idea that we represent arrives at the summit on an evening of the second round of the presidential election. The result this evening represents in itself a dazzling victory. Millions of our compatriots made the choice of the national camp.”
8.10pm: Two of Emanuel Macron's senior ministers were quick to express their contentment with the outcome. “I feel great satisfaction, more than anything it shows the strength of support of the French people for our values,” foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told public broadcaster France 2. Justice minister Eric Dupond-Moretti declared: “There was a track record, there was a plan, and the far-right have not taking control of this country. And now there are the Parliamentary elections that some had begun before the end of this second round of the presidential election. Once again it's going to be manifesto against manifesto.” Already the importance of those Parliamentary elections June are becoming clear.
8.08pm: There were jeers at the Le Pen HQ when the face of Emmanuel Macron appeared on the giant screens announcing his victory, but also clapping for her by the crowd of militants from far-right candidate’s Rassemblement National (RN) party, the former Front National.
8.05pm: There were immediate scenes of joy among the Macron supporters who have gathered on the Champ-de-Mars, in Paris; joy mingled perhaps with some relief that the victory was far more comfortable that some had predicted.
8.01pm: Marine Le Pen is due to speak shortly from her election night HQ at the Pavillon d'Armenonville in the Bois de Boulogne, just west of Paris, after what is her second final-round defeat against Emmanuel Macron.
8pm: President Emmanuel Macron has been re-elected as president of France. Initial projections suggest he has beaten his far-right rival Marine Le Pen by around 57.6% to 42.4%. That figure may vary as the actual votes are counted but it is likely to be close to the final outcome. Macron's win makes him the first French president to win a second term since Jacques Chirac in 2002. And it comes despite fears that a low turnout – which may be as low as 72% - would suit his challenger. You can practically the sighs of relief across Europe that the European Union and NATO do not have to deal with Marine Le Pen as French head of state. Macron's win is well down on his 66.1% to 33.9% win in the pair's first contest in 2017. But in normal French presidential terms this counts as a comfortable win.
6.40pm: While they wait for the result itself, a clutch of opinion pollsters have been estimating that the final abstention rate will be as low as 72%, in other words 28% of voters will not turn out. This contrasts with a turnout rate of 77.8% in 2017, when Macron comfortably beat Le Pen, and 79.5% in 2012.
5.45pm: According to France's Ministry of the Interior the turnout by 5pm was 63.2%. This was lower than the first round, when the corresponding figure was 65%. It is also below the 2017 second round turnout rate at the same time, which was 65.3%. Many observers have pointed out that the abstention rate could be a key factor in this election, amid fears that voters who dislike both candidates may simply stay at home.
-------------------------
French presidential elections: a brief guide
France’s presidential elections are held every five years, and are followed by legislative elections, which this year will be held in June (more on this below).
Voting in the presidential elections is held over two rounds, which this year are, respectively, on April 10th and 24th. There are around 49 million registered voters, although turnout is expected to be well below that figure. In the first round the turnout was 73.69%.
The first round decided who were the two highest-placed candidates – Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen – who then compete in this Sunday's second round duel. The winner will take office on May 13th.
Polling began at 8am and finishes at 8pm in major cities and at 7pm everywhere else.
In the first round, 12 candidates stood (eight men and four women), including the incumbent, Emmanuel Macron, who is seeking a second five-year term in office. The others ranged from the far-left to the far-right, alongside mainstream candidates from the Left and Right.
After this election is completed attention will switch to the Parliamentary elections, which will take place over two rounds on June 12th and June 19th. The outcome of those elections will determine not just whether the new president can get their legislation through the National Assembly but also influence the very composition of the new government that they are able to form.