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2022 FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Macron to face Le Pen in battle to be French president

Incumbent Emmanuel Macron and his far right challenger Marine Le Pen will face each other once again in the second round run off vote in the race for the Elysée, preliminary results showed on Sunday night.

Published: 10 April 2022 20:11 CEST
Updated: 11 April 2022 00:26 CEST
Macron to face Le Pen in battle to be French president
Election posters for Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen and, inset, Jean-Luc Melenchon. Photo by Nicolas TUCAT / AFP

French President Emmanuel Macron was on course to beat far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the first round of France’s
elections Sunday by a larger than expected margin, with the rivals now set to battle for the presidency in a run-off later this month.

Projections showed Macron scoring 28.6-29.7 percent in the first round and Le Pen on 23.5-24.7, with the top two candidates going through to the second round run-off on April 24.

That means the second-round run off vote in two weeks time which will decide the country’s next president will be a repeat of 2017, according to initial results.

Speaking shortly after the results were announced Le Pen called on all those who hadn’t voted for Macron to back her in the second round vote.

She said April 24th’s second round run-off would be reflect the choice between the “society and civilisation” of France.

“I will put France in order within five years,” she told her supporters in Paris, urging “all those who did not vote for Emmanuel Macron” in the first round to back her in the second.

Her cheering supporters chanted “We are going to win”. 

Despite entering the campaign late and holding just one rally before the vote, Macron appears to have performed more strongly than predicted by pre-vote opinion polls and won immediate support from defeated rivals for the second round.

“It’s a new campaign that is opening now,” French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said after the publication of the projections, which led supporters of Macron to erupt in joy at the candidate’s headquarters in Paris.

Far left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon was third with just over 20 percent of the vote, whilst far right candidate Eric Zemmour was fourth with 7.1 percent. 

Zemmour, who called each of his two million votes “a cry from a people that does not want to die”, urged his supporters to back Le Pen.

Centre right candidate Valerie Pecresse was fifth with just 5.1 percent followed by Socialist party candidate Anne Hidalgo who scored just 1.9 percent.

Ecologist candidate Yannick Jadot scored 4.4 percent initial results showed.

In a boost for Macron, he swiftly won the support of the defeated Socialist, Communist, Green and traditional right-wing candidates in the second round.

Melenchon urged his supporters to refrain from voting for Le Pen, but did nor issue a call to back Macron.

The initial scores are based on sample polling stations and are collated by various polling organisations – which means that different media have slightly different results.

The final scores are released by the Interior Ministry early on Monday morning, and while the final percentages are likely to shift slightly it will be very unlikely to affect the overall result. 

A pivotal moment in the next stage of the campaign is likely to come on April 20 when the two candidates are set to take part in a TV debate broadcast live on national television.

The final debate has in the past had a crucial impact on the outcome of the vote such as in 2017 when Macron was seen as gaining the upper hand in exchanges with a flustered Le Pen.

The 44-year-old is expected for the next two weeks to put his diplomatic efforts on the Ukraine crisis to one side and focus more whole-heartedly on campaigning in a bid to find the election momentum that has so far eluded his team.

Although her opponents accuse her of being an extremist bent on dividing society, Le Pen has sought to project a more moderate image in this campaign and has focused on voters’ daily worries over rising prices.

But Macron is expected to target her past proximity with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, her plans to radically change the functioning of the European Union, as well as the cost of her economic programme that includes massive tax cuts.

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POLITICS

French PM says new government names will be revealed ‘before Sunday’

France's long-running political deadlock finally reached a conclusion on Thursday night as newly-appointed prime minister Michel Barnier travelled to the Presidential palace to present his new government.

Published: 19 September 2024 18:07 CEST
Updated: 20 September 2024 08:30 CEST
French PM says new government names will be revealed 'before Sunday'

Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s office said on Thursday that he would “go to the Elysée to propose to the president a government that is ready to serve France”.

After a meeting earlier on Thursday afternoon with the heads of political parties, Barner then travelled to the Elysée Palace on Thursday evening to meet president Emmanuel Macron.

Their meeting lasted for just under an hour and at the end journalists saw Macron showing Barnier out saying Merci beaucoup, à demain (thanks very much, see you tomorrow).

After the meeting, Barnier’s office said he had had a “constructive exchange” with the president and that the full list of names of the new ministers will be made public “before Sunday, after the usual checks have been made”.

French media reported that the full list of 38 names, of which 16 will be full minsters, includes seven ministers from Macron’s centrist group, two from fellow centrists MoDem and three from Barnier’s own party, the right-wing Les Républicains.

Listen to John Lichfield discussing the challenges that Barnier faces in the latest episode of the Talking France podcast – download here or listen on the link below

Barnier’s statement said that “after two weeks of intensive consultations with the different political groups” he has found the architecture of his new government, adding that his priorities would be to;

  • Improve the standard of living for the French and the workings of public services, especially schools and healthcare
  • Guarantee security, control immigration and improve integration
  • Encourage businesses and agriculture and build upon the economic attractiveness of France
  • Get public finances under control and reduce debt

France has been in a state of limbo ever since parliamentary elections in July produced a deadlock with no group coming close to winning enough seats for a majority.

A caretaker government remained in place over the summer while president Emmanuel Macron declared an ‘Olympics truce’.

He finally appointed the right-wing former minister and ex-Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier on September 5th.

Barnier has spent the last two weeks in intense negotiations in his attempt to form a government that won’t immediately be brought down through a motion of no-confidence in parliament.

Numerous left-wing politicians are reported to have refused to serve in his government while several high-profile Macronists have also ruled themselves out, including long-serving finance minister Bruno Le Maire who last week announced that he was quitting politics.

The reported make up of the new government does not reflect the election result – in which the leftist Nouveau Front Populaire coalition came first, followed by Macron’s centrists with the far-right Rassemblement National in third – but Barnier’s hope is that enough MPs will support it to avoid an immediate motion de censure (vote of no confidence).

The government’s first task will be to prepare the 2025 budget, which is already a week late. France’s soaring budget deficit and threat of a downgrade from ratings agencies mean that it will be a tricky task with Barnier, who has prepared the ground for tax hikes by warning that the situation is ‘very serious’.

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