An analysis of the final results of last Sunday's presidential election shows the extent to which Emmanuel Macron's electoral strategy paid off handsomely, while at the same time indicating that support for the far-right is now firmly entrenched across the country. It is now abundantly clear that France has entered a new political era. But the results also highlight the risk that whole sections of the population could be left stranded without proper political representation for years to come. Fabien Escalona and Donatien Huet report.
Emmanuel Macron has been re-elected as president of France. In the second and decisive round of the French presidential election that took place this Sunday, Macron beat off the challenge from his far-right rival, Marine Le Pen. Initial projections gave him a winning margin of close to 58% to around 42%. His victory – by a large margin though slimmer than his win against the same candidate in 2017 – means that the centre-right Macron becomes the first French president to win a second term since Jacques Chirac in 2002. The outcome has been greeted with relief across Europe and around the world, for a Le Pen victory would have had profound implications for France's role in both the European Union and NATO. Macron, who had been the favourite in the polls to win, will begin his second term on May 13th. Attention is already switching to the key Parliamentary elections in June which will determine the nature of Macron's new government. Find out how the election night unfolded with our live coverage of the events and reaction here. Reporting by Michael Streeter and Graham Tearse.
The far-right has never been so close to power. And given that it is the worst enemy of equality, rights and freedom, voting against its candidate on Sunday April 24th is the only anti-fascist option in the French presidential election, writes Mediapart’s publishing editor Edwy Plenel in this op-ed article. But, he says, it will be a painful act, because the other name on the ballot paper is that of the person who is chiefly responsible for this catastrophe: Emmanuel Macron.
The first round of voting earlier this month in France’s presidential elections showed notable political differences between the country’s regions, and also between rural areas and large urban centres. As next Sunday’s decisive second round of the elections approaches, Mediapart’s Amélie Poinssot turned to sociologist Benoît Coquard, a specialist researcher of rural communities, for his insight into the voting patterns that have emerged.
French President Emmanuel Macron, campaigning in what many commentators predict will be a tight duel in presidential elections this month against far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, has said he is in favour of an EU-wide ceiling for top executives’ pay after it was revealed that Carlos Tavares, head of French carmaker PSA, was handed 19 million euros in remuneration last year after its merger with Italian-US rival Fiat Chrysler.
As far-right leader Marine Le Pen approaches what is predicted will be a tightly fought duel with Emmanuel Macron in the April 24th final round of France’s presidential elections, the credibility of her capacity to govern is under heightened scrutiny, not least over her ability to form a government. Lucie Delaporte reports.
French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, who will face incumbent Emmanuel Macron in a final round of the elections on April 24th, has close ties to the Kremlin while her party has received significant funding from Russian banks, wants France to leave NATO, seeks to weakenn the EU, and is opposed to sanctions against Russian oil and gas exports.
The results of the first round of France’s presidential elections on Sunday have demonstrated that the political earthquake of the elections in 2017, when Emmanuel Macron arrived in office, was no passing aberration. Instead, the voting last weekend confirmed the endurance of a new electoral landscape in France, with the old mainstream socialist and conservative parties of government left in tatters, replaced by a centre-right behind Macron, a strengthened far-right and a Left dominated by its ‘Green-and-red’ movements. This analysis by Fabien Escalona and Donatien Huet.
The first round of the French presidential elections was held on Sunday, when centre-right Emmanuel Macron, seeking a second term in office, and far-right Rassemblement National party leader Marine Le Pen emerged as the highest placed out 12 candidates. They will now go on to a second and final round duel on April 24th. There were surprises in the scores of other candidates, and who their supporters decide to back, or not, in the second round will be crucial in what promises to be a tight second-round contest. Find out how the election night unfolded with our live coverage of the events here (along with the official results announced on Monday and a basic guide to how the elections work). Reporting by Graham Tearse and Michael Streeter.
France goes to the polls on Sunday in the first round of presidential elections, when the two highest-placed candidates out of a total of 12 will move on to the final deciding round on April 24th. While opinion surveys see a tightening race, with the far-right's Marine Le Pen closing in on Emmanuel Macron's lead, and radical-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon lying third, one of the key factors that can sway the outcome is turnout, a regular imponderable in French elections and which, as in the past, may yet upset poll predictions. Mathilde Goanec reports.
French President Emmanuel Macron, seeking a second term in office in elections that begin this weekend, and who has lost his longstanding position as clear favourite, is concentrating his campaign fire on far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the assumption that she will emerge ahead of the ten other challengers on Sunday to face him in a repeat of their 2017 run-off.
To one degree or another, behind the two far-right and one mainsteam Right candidates in France's presidential elections is media mogul Vincent Bolloré, 70, scion of an old industrial family, whose outlets, known for adopting the flair, tics and style of Fox News, play an outsize role in directing the national political debate, writes Harrison Stetler in an opinion article for The New York Times.
Emmanuel Macron, speaking less than a week before the first-round of France's presidential elections, has urged voters to turn out as a predicted high abstention rate threatens to accentuate a tightening gap in opinion polls between his once comfortable re-election bid and second-placed far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.
Emmanuel Macron, who is seeking re-election in next month's French presidential elections, has unveiled his manifesto in which he pledges tax cuts totalling around 15 billion euros, pension reforms which would raise the retirement age to 65, centralising the welfare system and obliging the jobless to carry out volunatry work, a tightening of immigration laws and investment in public services in the education, defence and justice sectors.
Latest opinion poll surveys of voting intentions in the April French presidential elections show Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the radical-left LFI party, as having overtaken the conservative candidate and closing the gap with the two far-right candidates, raising speculation that he could yet reach the second-round playoff against Emmanuel Macron, who retains a comfortable lead over all his rivals.
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