France faces bruising runoff after Macron and Le Pen top first-round vote

theguardian ^ | Sun 10 Apr 2022 | Angelique Chrisafis

[RandFan]

France faces a brutal two-week campaign over the country’s future, as the centrist incumbent, Emmanuel Macron, faces the far-right Marine Le Pen for the presidency, positioning himself as a pro-European “progressive” against what he calls her anti-Muslim, nationalist programme and “complacency” about Vladimir Putin.

Macron topped Sunday’s first round of the French presidential election with 27.6% of the vote, ahead of Le Pen’s 23.4%, according to initial projected results by Ipsos for France Télévisions.

He scored higher than his result in the first round five years ago, and clearly gained support in the final hours of the campaign after his harsh warnings to voters to hold back the far right and protect France’s place on the international diplomatic stage amid the war in Ukraine.

But Le Pen’s score was also higher than five years ago. She had steadily gained support after campaigning hard on the cost of living crisis and inflation, which had become voters’ biggest concern.

All major candidates, except for the far-right TV pundit Éric Zemmour, immediately called for French people to vote tactically to keep out Le Pen in the second round.

[DesertRhino]

Amazing how fast this election campaign is.

[alexander_busek]

He scored higher than his result in the first round five years ago, and clearly gained support in the final hours of the campaign after his harsh warnings to voters to hold back the far right and protect France’s place on the international diplomatic stage amid the war in Ukraine.

Yep, same sh*t they pulled with Trump: "If you vote for someone with backbone, the (other) spineless Euro-weenies won't like us any more!"

Regards,

[rhinohunter]

Amazing how fast this election campaign is.

What’s amazing is how many “far-right” figures there are in France!

Who knew?

[Macho MAGA Man]

I just saw on Twitter that Antifa is rioting in France destroying businesses because LePen is in a winnable position.

[Paladin2]

What do the French Islamics say?

What % of the runoff vote in favor of Macron will be Islamic?

[Mr. Blond]

One runs to serve France, one runs to serve Brussels.

[Adder]

Lesson for us:

Despite the inflation, Wuhan woes, etc. Macron still up 4.

I can see that happening here...

[apillar]

All major candidates, except for the far-right TV pundit Éric Zemmour, immediately called for French people to vote tactically to keep out Le Pen in the second round.

I would like to think Le Pen stands a chance, unfortunately I just see a repeat of 2017. For the next two weeks every news outlet in Europe will implement "Operation Scare the Sheeple" portraying Le Pen as "far right", "Hitler v2.0", or "Satan". (when in reality, she's about as "far right" as your average RINO in the US).

[AdmSmith]

Just Le Pen in Crimea with a Soviet hat and flag.

https://twitter.com/expatua/status/1513199601477689348

This is why:
In 2014 Marine Le Pen’s National Front Party received loans worth €11 from Russia. In return she supported Putin’s annexation of Crimea. Marine Le Pen then met Putin (again?) in Moscow in 2017, after which she promised she would remove sanctions.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39478066