Centrists Macron and Le Pen, long-standing champions of the far-right, were the top candidates in the first round of Sunday’s vote, taking 27.8% and 23.2% of the vote, respectively, according to the French Interior Ministry.
Twelve candidates ran for the highest office. With none of them receiving more than 50% of the vote in the first round, the two top candidates will face each other in the run-off on April 24.
The first round of the 2022 competition was marked by apathy among voters, with turnout estimated at 73.3%, according to an analysis by the Ifop-Fiducial poll of French broadcasters TF1 and LCI – the lowest level in the first round in 20 years.
While Macron received more votes than any of the other candidates in the first round, he is a polarizing figure whose popularity has waned during his first term.
In a speech after polling stations closed Sunday, he urged citizens to vote in the second round.
“Nothing has been settled and the discussion that we will have over the next 15 days will be decisive for our country and for Europe,” he said. “I don’t want a France that, having left Europe, will have its only allies populist internationalism and xenophobia. This is not us. I want France faithful to humanity, to the spirit of the Enlightenment,” he said.
Macron is seeking to become the first French president to win re-election since Jacques Chirac in 2002. Opinion polls have given him a steady edge over the rest of the field, but the race has heated up dramatically in the last month.
An Ifop-Fiducial poll on Sunday showed Macron would win the second round against Le Pen with just 51% to 49%.
Le Pen’s support has risen steadily in recent weeks. Although she is best known for her far-right policies such as severely restricting immigration and banning Islamic headscarves in public, this time she has run a more mainstream campaign, toning down her language and focusing more on pocket issues such as the rising cost of living. , a major concern to French voters.
In her speech on Sunday, Le Pen pledged to be president of “all French” if she won the second round, and called on those who did not vote for Macron to support her in the second round.
