Incumbent Emmanuel Macron and right-wing challenger Marine Le Pen will enter a run-off election at the end of the month after neither candidate met the threshold for a decisive first-round victory in the French presidential election.
Macron received 28.6 percent of the vote in Sunday’s election while Le Pen drew 23.6 percent, according to pollster Ifop-Fiducial for French broadcasters TF1 and LCI.
One of the 12 candidates needed to receive over 50 percent of the vote to be declared the winner without a follow-up race. Éric Zemmour, a conservative newspaper columnist, joined Le Pen in running on immigration restriction but failed to unseat her as the leader of the French right.
Seventy-three percent of French adults cast votes in the election, the lowest turnout for a first-round presidential election in 20 years, Ifop-Fiducial reported.
Macron, whose popularity has waned amid a European economic crisis exacerbated by Russia’s disruption of energy markets, tried to inspire voter momentum after the first election. He warned against a Le Pen administration that would be isolationist and closed off to the world. Macron is known for his management of the pandemic in France, especially his Covid-19 vaccine passport for the country. While Macron has been vocal about his support for Ukraine and its president Volodymyr Zelensky amid the Russian onslaught, Le Pen has been accused of sympathizing with Russian president Vladimir Putin in the past.
“Nothing is settled and the debate that we will have in the coming 15 days is decisive for our country and our Europe,” Macron said Sunday night. “I don’t want a France which, having left Europe, would have as its only allies the international populists and xenophobes. That is not us. I want a France faithful to humanism, to the spirit of enlightenment.”
In her speech Sunday, Le Pen struck a populist tone, promising to be a president for “all the French” if she wins the second round.
Macron is predicted to outperform Le Pen in the second round 51 percent to 49 percent, respectively, according to a Sunday poll from Ifop-Fiducial. Their match-up could be a repeat of the 2017 race when Macron defeated Le Pen, however, this time the race appears to be much closer.