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Updated 0.32am
FAR-RIGHT LEADER Marine Le Pen and pro-Europe candidate Emmanuel Macron look set to face off in the French presidential election final, after the two topped the poll in one of the closest presidential battles France has seen.
Macron took 23.9% of yesterday’s vote, slightly ahead of National Front (FN) leader Le Pen with 21.4%, according to estimates.
Conservative candidate Francois Fillon has conceded defeat and endorsed Macron in the runoff against Le Pen, saying that there was ”no other option but to vote against the far right”.
The French electorate will now have to choose between Macron and Le Pen for president in the second round of voting on 7 May.
“The French have expressed their desire for change,” Macron said. “We’re clearly turning a page in French political history.”
Macron, who is a former banker and minister for the economy, said the results were a clear rejection of France’s traditional parties.
“I want to be the president of the patriots against the threat of nationalists,” he told thousands of supporters in Paris.
Le Pen hailed the result as “historic”. ”The first step has been taken,” she told her supporters. “It is time to liberate the French people.”
She said that the second round of voting will be a battle over France’s future.
“The major issue of this election is runaway globalisation, which is putting our civilisation in danger,” she said.
“Either we continue on the path of complete deregulation, with no borders and no protection… mass immigration and free movement of terrorists… or you choose France,” she added.
There were a total of 11 candidates in Sunday’s election, with four main contenders who all looked at various times throughout the campaign as though they could go through – Macron, Le Pen, Fillon, who looks set to finish third, and far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who will finish fourth.
The projected result signals a massive defeat for Fillon and Socialist Party candidate Benoit Hamon, meaning neither of France’s two major mainstream parties will be in the second round for the first time in 60 years.
Hamon, who is projected to win just 6% of the vote, said the left had suffered a “historic drubbing” but urged voters to keep out Le Pen who he said was “an enemy of the republic”.
The campaign was closely fought, and illustrated a deep divide in France and widespread anger at traditional parties.
Macron, a 39-year-old who had never before stood for election and only started his independent centrist movement 12 months ago, will be the overwhelming favourite to win the second round on 7 May.
All polls show that he has a lead of approximately 20 percentage points in a head-to-head contest with Le Pen.
Different approaches
Le Pen, the 48-year-old leader of the National Front (FN), sought to capitalise on security fears that were catapulted to the fore of the campaign after the fatal shooting of a policeman on Paris’s Champs Elysees avenue claimed by the Islamic State group.
Aiming to ride a wave of populism that led Donald Trump to the White House and Britain to vote for Brexit, Le Pen also wants to pull France out of the eurozone and has threatened to take the country out of the EU as well.
Her ambitions have led observers to predict that a Le Pen victory on 7 May could be a fatal blow for the EU, already weakened by Britain’s vote to leave the bloc.
Macron is seeking to become France’s youngest ever president and campaigned on a strongly pro-EU and pro-business platform.
Seeking to benefit from a worldwide move away from established political parties, the former banker and economy minister formed his own movement, En Marche (‘On the move’), that he says is “neither to the left nor to the right”.
In the wake of the policeman’s killing on Thursday, 50,000 police and 7,000 soldiers were deployed around France to protect voters.
Rollercoaster
Closely watched around the world, the French campaign has been a rollercoaster ride of unpredictable twists and turns.
A race that began with the surprise nomination of Fillon as right-wing candidate in November shifted into a higher gear in December when unpopular Socialist President Francois Hollande decided not to seek re-election.
Hollande’s five years in office have been dogged by a sluggish economy and a string of terror attacks that have cost more than 230 lives since 2015.
Fillon was the early frontrunner until his support waned after he was charged following accusations he gave his British-born wife a fictional job as his parliamentary assistant for which she was paid nearly €700,000 of public money.
Nearly 47 million people were eligible to vote in the eurozone’s second biggest economy and turnout was forecast to be high at around 80 percent. The results will be seen as a credit to French pollsters, who successfully forecast the results
Additional reporting by Christine Bohan
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Early start for YFG ☺
Brinster will be here soon ..he not due to be in the frame room till 9
Shinnerbots up early.
I would hold other Sinn Fein TDs above Mary Lou,O Breoin or Doherty..who has corrected Noonan’s maths on a few occasions..but its only a personal preference.and the members will decide..as opposed to being appointed..
@Kieran OKeeffe: All credit to Sinn Fein in the north for following the political route this past decade, time for the DUP to step down from the pulpit and put away their bibles.
Mary Lou should look at the derelict state of her own constituency before criticising others.
Do you mean pearse Doherty, the Scottish lad who couldn’t be bothered finishing his taxpayer funded education
What?
Imnotrodten, you don’t have a say, your credibility is shot after you clumsily exposed your multiple accounts yesterday.
I did nothing. You just added 1 and 1 and got 14
@Imnotrodten: Some of the best people I have ever worked, with and I am from an I.T. Security field, and the people I’m talking about where thee very best, Never finished college. That fact that you choose to simply attack this behavior rather than understand why makes me think your not very smart either and thus have no right to make such stupid comments.
She showed shes not up to much when she (correctly) tore into the catholic church over its historical child abuse but demured and prevaricated when similar stories regarding the provos emerged.
There is no way the Army Council will allow “some wee girl from the South” to become leader of SF. No way.
@Charlie Wrex: Similar to FF/FG etc but no headlines for them when similar stories emerged. How often have we heard Noonan questioned about his links with Grace and other abuses or indeed Micheál Martin questioned about Bill Kenneally in Waterford or the disappearance of Mary Boyle in Donegal? They are just small examples through the years.
The media in this country have a strange attitude towards child abuse. All political parties should and must take responsibility for ALL child abuse victims and treat ALL victims equally. That does not happen. Mention child abuse and SF get trotted out while ignoring all others. Equality for all victims not just those that suit the political/media agenda
she showed how morally bankrupt she is when she attacked the church over abuse but didnt how her leader to the same high standards. she is an absolute disgrace
@Charlie Wrex: This is correct. Utterly hypocritical and most people were well able to see it.
@Dublin Living: …doesn’t one get sick of these one sided tyre kickers …The only hypocrisy I see or here is from people like, Charlie , Paddy and Dubln Living
..fer pheck sake wake up you idiots, you are being taken for a ride by the current ff/fg establishment and you are so stupid you can’t see….and thats a No Brainer ..
@CJ Stewart: Tell me CJ, in what was was I hypocritical? I condemned child abuse and I condemned covering it up. I did this to both the church and to SF. Are you sure you know what ‘hypocritical’ means?
It’s not just their links to the IRA that keeps people from voting for them, it’s their mantra style of handling interviews and not answering the hard questions. I reckon if Ms. Mc Donald becomes leader people will automatically switch off as soon as she begins an interview because there is only so much waffle that people can tolerate.
She comes across in interviews like a steamroller with a thin coating of superficial pleasantness.
She is too battlehardened to have the human warmth and charisma that seems lost in Northern politics but is badly needed.
@John Campbell: It’s no surprise the majority of their supporters come from the most poorly educated areas, they are more vulnerable than others.
Hypocrites is a word used in Ireland a lot and rightly so the island is full of them. You lot for example were missing from the ” loyalist invasion” article yesterday, the one were the director of terrorism Peter Robinson led 150 paramilitaries in military formation into Monaghan and terrorised the locals.
I can only imagine your outrage if Gerry Adams had have led nationalists in an invasion of a Protestant community.
But still would you let them near Ireland’s financial brief or legal brief.
They have their own form of justice Ossi, which the vehemently believe supersedes that in Ireland and elsewhere.
@Ossi Fritsche: ….because we are best leaving it the hands of those who know best… ???? …..tell us all Ossi, who got the country in the mess it’s in, in the first place…?
Twice in the last short while SF have had to correct the Government on it’s figures.. So yeah quite frankly I very much feel SF could handle our Finances/Economy!
“We want to be in government. I want us to be in government.”
Funny that. They have a long history of abstaining on many issues, both in the Republic and in The North. It seems to be their modus operandi on challenging issues.
She’s a loose canon, proven many times in her double standards, especially when it comes to sexual abuse cases.
Like Noonan and “the Grace Case?”
Good whataboutery. Still doesn’t get away from the fact that she is just another lap dog for the true leadership.
As opposed to FF or FG who oversaw and helped cover up 100+ years of systematic sexual abuse and violence against tens of thousands of children? With countless deaths from negligence and suicide amongst victims.
@Cillín Ó hEadhra: just because someone points out the facts, you assume they must be supporter of the other parties. Either you are prepared to stand up against sexual abuse (nomatter the source) or else deflect it like it’s ok for some and not for others.
This isn’t about politics, it’s about right versus wrong, and having the guts to call it out. No exceptions.
The NI government fails again. A bitter row between DUP and SF. British and Irish governments step in to patch things up. Mary Lou is Taoiseach. What a prospect for peace in NI.
What I don’t understand is why any political party, who has a leader (Adams) restricting the demographic reach of the party, would not dump him at the earliest opportunity.
Whether its Mary-Lou or someone else, the sooner SF leave behind the old guard the sooner we will see SF in government north and south of the border. The island is screaming out for left leaning government, the sooner the better for all our sakes.
AJ
She lacks the diplomacy. Martin McGuinness formed a friendship with Ian Paisley. It’s born out of must and circumstances…..Mary Lou would cross the street sooner than try to find common ground with a member of FG. This is the biggest problem with Irish politics as the reverse is also true.
Think it’s the other way around. Did you hear the childish carry on of Regina Doherty regarding MaryLou? You wouldn’t see it in primary school. I see Mary Lou in this interview didn’t engage in the same petty behaviour conncerning Regina. That woman is a liability to FG.
Childishness? This is what she said about Mary Lou: “she’s a woman who attempted to justify how long it took Gerry Adams to report his own brother when he was living in Drogheda even though he knew that there were allegations against him made, and I’m sorry, as a woman, as a mother, I don’t know how anybody could live with themselves having done that” Mary lou said regarding catholic child abuse: “Anyone, including Gardaí, found to be complicit in the cover up of child abuse must be arrested and made to face the full rigours of the law” – just not Gerry i guess. I rarely agree with Doherty but shes 100% correct here.
Pity she is not as vocal about her own party’s finance minister with regards to the Grace Case. Did she speak out about that? A hypocrite is what she is.
If the article was about the abject failure of the HSE and seeming intransigence of certain ministers, i dont think id be pointing at Mary Lou and friends to deflect. The Grace case is a genuinely harrowing litany of failure and apparent cover ups. The girl behind the pseudonym deserves complete justice and some animals need jail time. Its a shame shinners point and say what about. Any other party leader directly implicated in covering up and thered be deafening calls for resignations. You might look at John Deasy – hes been very very vocal in questioning and highlighting the case. Feel free to keep up the whataboutery though. Its sadly familiar.
@Charlie Wrex: Mary Lou has time and again condemned child abuse across the board not just been selective http://www.thejournal.ie/mary-lou-sex-abuse-ira-sinn-fein-1987836-Mar2015/ http://www.irishcentral.com/news/politics/sinn-feins-mary-lou-mcdonald-denies-claims-of-a-cover-up-on-child-abuse-allegations (just 2 examples of her condemnation)
Meanwhile Regina Doherty has ignored the links to Grace and the Michael Noonan, she and others in the Dáil have continually ignored the verdict of the Belfast courts, ignored the links between Bill Kenneally and Fianna Fáil, ignored the links between missing child Mary Boyle and Fianna Fáil.
Regina has also made many allegations of ‘death threats’ against her yet not one person has been brought to court or even questioned about them. She also made a statement before the last election stating that victims of bombings brought it on themselves.
Some class from that lady who once again clearly illustrates the hierarchy of victims that exists in not just Irish political and media circles but also as indicated by some on here, who pick and choose what victims they support while ignoring others.
Kerry, im not defending or supporting Doherty. Mary lou said anyone that rapes a child cant call themselves a republican. A very far cry from arresting and jailing catholic church animals that covered up abuse. Mary lou merely denied thered been any cover up within SF. The victims say otherwise. I find her two tiered approach sickening at best and deliberately obtuse at worst. Any politician that engages in this should be run out of office. There should be nowhere to hide for anyone who abuses or covers up child abuse. She needs to be unequivocal rather than partisan and defensive.
Arlene refused to do the right thing and her party backed her….you could substitute Gerry for Arlene in relation to several serious incidents.
@MaryLou(ny)McDonald:
Arlene. Wasn’t she married to Boycie?
Is that a variation on the Hitler salute?
@Paddy Lions: More like Donald Trump, pointing the finger and waving his fist.
Depute?
Referendum in the Republic on Leaving the European “Onion” would be nice.
When will Gerry Adams see the light and understand that in many peoples minds he is connected with the IRA and that the day he retires his party will soar in popularity. He is the one reason why they do badly in elections.
have your say