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The results are in from the first round of voting and the next French president will be either an independent centrist politician or the leader of the far right Front National. Emmanuel Macron will go head to head with Marine Le Pen in the second round on May the 7th, pitting against each other two politicians with diametrically opposed visions for France and its place in the world.
French voters face a clear choice. Mr. Macron's embrace of globalisation, economic modernisation, and European integration or Ms. Le Pen's call for protectionism, the return of national borders, and withdrawal from the euro.
The vote was also an unmistakable rejection of the status quo. France's established centre right and socialist parties have held the presidency between them for more than 50 years.
[FRENCH]
Mr. Macron, a relative political novice who has never held elected office came out on top with just under 24% of the vote. Ms. Le Pen was in second place with over 21%. Most of the votes have now been counted.
[FRANCE]
Sunday's first round vote turned into a four-way cliffhanger. It followed a tumultuous campaign marked by surprise primary results, corruption allegations, insurgent candidates from the extremes, and the terrorist attack in Paris.
Senior figures from the campaigns of the defeated establishment party candidates have thrown their support behind Mr. Macron, while the far left candidate said he would wait until the final result was confirmed before admitting defeat. That makes Mr. Macron, who only formed his centrist political movement En Marche! last year, the firm favourite to be installed in the Elysee Palace. Before that, he was an economic adviser to the current president, Francois Hollande.
Ms. Le Pen will be hoping to go one better than her father who shocked the French establishment in 2002 when he reached the second round of the presidential election before losing out to Jacques Chirac.
Victor Mallet. Financial Times.
