INCUMBENT FRENCH PRESIDENT Emmanuel Macron is on course to win a second term by defeating far-right leader Marine Le Pen in presidential elections, projections have showed.
Macron was set to win between 57.6% and 58.2% of the vote compared with Le Pen on 41.8% to 42.4%, according to projections by polling firms for French television channels based on a sample of the vote count.
Macron went into the election with a stable lead in opinion polls, an advantage he consolidated in the frenetic final days of campaigning, including a no-holds-barred performance in the pre-election debate.
Le Pen hailed her score in presidential elections on Sunday as a “brilliant victory”, despite her projected defeat to Emmanuel Macron.
Promising to “carry on” her political career and vowing that she would “never abandon” the French, the 53-year-old said: “The result represents a brilliant victory.”
The second round run-off is a repeat of the clash between Le Pen and Macron in 2017 when the centrist won 66 percent of the vote. But the margins were seen as being far narrower this time.
The European Union’s two most senior officials on Sunday congratulated French President Emmanuel Macron after projections showed him winning a second term in office.
“We can count on France for five more years,” European Council President Charles Michel wrote on Twitter. “I am delighted to be able to continue our excellent cooperation,” tweeted European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Taoiseach Micheal Martin wrote on Twitter that Macron’s “principled and dynamic leadership is important not only for France, but for Europe.”
Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi said: “The victory of Emmanuel Macron in the French presidential election is great news for all of Europe.”
Voting stations closed at 8pm (7pm Irish time), when polling firms published preliminary results based on partial counts that usually predict the final result with a high degree of accuracy.
Macron in particular was banking on left-wing voters who backed other candidates in the first round will support the former investment banker and his pro-business, reformist agenda to stop Le Pen and her populist programme.
But far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, who scored a close third-place finish in the first round, pointedly refused to urge his millions of followers to back Macron while insisting they should not vote for Le Pen.
Macron himself repeatedly said that the complacency of stay-at-home voters precipitated the shocks of the 2016 elections that led to Brexit in Britain and Donald Trump’s election in the United States.
The stakes were huge for both France and Europe, with Macron pledging reform and tighter EU integration while Le Pen, who would be France’s first female president, insists the bloc should be modified in what opponents describe as “Frexit” by another name.
Macron has also opposed Le Pen’s plan to make it illegal to wear the Muslim headscarf in public, though her team has walked back on the proposal ahead of the vote, saying it was no longer a “priority”.
They have also clashed on Russia, with Macron seeking to portray Le Pen as incapable of dealing with the invasion of Ukraine due to a loan her party took from a Russian-Czech bank.
Macron is the first French president to win re-election in two decades since Jacques Chirac in 2002.
He is expected to address supporters on the Champ de Mars in central Paris at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.
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