France: Despite a slightly lower voter turnout, pollsters Ipsos estimated that incumbent President Emmanuel Macron received 28.1 percent of the vote in the first round of the French presidential election, with Marie Le Pen of the far-right National Rally, better known as the National Front, receiving 23.3 percent.
The two will now face off in a rematch on April 24 in a decisive second round of voting. Fans of the finalists were arranging parties to celebrate their advancement to the final stage, which were expected to last far into the night.
Leftist JeanLuc Melenchon received an impressive 20.1 percent of the vote among the 12 candidates, which is likely to shift in favour of Macron in the second round. Eric Zemmour, an extreme rightist, received 7.2 percent of the vote, with a large portion of that going to Le Pen in the second round. Valerie Pecresse of the traditional right-of-centre Republicans received only 7.2 percent of the vote, and she appealed to her supporters to vote for Macron in the second round. With 2.1 percent, socialist Anne Hidalgo fared even worse.
Macron voted in Le Touquet, a beach town in the Pas-de-Calais region of northern France, and urged voters to participate in the election. He, on the other hand, failed to enthuse them adequately.
Turnout was lower than in the first round of voting in 2017, although it was still about 75%. Except for their apathy in 2002, French voters have not refrained from voting in this manner.
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