Current French President Emmanuel Macron and right-wing challenger Marine Le Pen are heading for an April 24th presidential election runoff, projections showed after first round voting on Sunday, Reuters reports.
Macron garnered 28.1-29.5% of votes in the first round while Le Pen won 23.3-24.4%, according to separate estimates by pollsters Ifop, OpinionWay, Elabe and Ipsos. Those estimates, published as voting ended, are usually very reliable in France.
If confirmed, that outcome would set up a duel between Macron and the eurosceptic Le Pen who has been an open admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and whose party has received funding from Moscow – something that could never have happened without the approval of the Kremlin.
Far-right Jewish candidate Eric Zemmour has called on his own supporters to back Le Pen, Marion Marechal – who is an ally of Zemmour and Le Pen’s niece – told BFM TV.
To cheers of supporters chanting “We will win! We will win!,” Le Pen said she wanted to unite all French. The runoff “will be a choice of civilisation,” she said, adding that her platform would protect the weak and make France independent.
A Le Pen victory on April 24th would constitute a similar jolt to the establishment as Britain’s Brexit vote to leave the European Union (EU) or Donald Trump’s 2017 entry into the White House, Reuters commented.
France, the EU’s second largest economy, would lurch from being a driving force for European integration to being led by a euro-sceptic who is also suspicious of the NATO military alliance.
While Le Pen has ditched past ambitions for a “Frexit” or to haul France out of the euro zone’s single currency, she envisages the EU as a mere alliance of sovereign states.
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