Compared to 2017, in the last duel between the same two candidates in the second round, the difference to Le Pen was much greater.

Emmanuel Marcon was re-elected president of France, according to projections published by the French press, which give him around 58% of the votes.

TF1’s projection gives Macron 58% and Le Pen 42%. The Cnews vote gives Macron the victory with 57.9% of the votes, against Le Pen’s 42.1%. On BFMTV, the projection shows that Macron should win 57.6% of the votes, while Le Pen will be at 42.4%.

Next to the Eiffel Tower, where the president’s supporters are located, there was a huge celebration as soon as the projections appeared on a giant screen, as witnessed by CNN Portugal on the spot.

Already at Marine Le Pen’s headquarters, boos were heard when the projections appeared, exactly at 8:00 pm local time (7:00 pm in Lisbon). Note that this will be the far-right candidate’s best result in her attempts to reach the Elysee.

The re-election of the centrist and pro-European candidate was expected by the polls, but when compared to 2017, when he also faced Marine Le Pen, this victory will have a smaller margin. In 2017, in the first duel between the two in the second round, Emmanuel Macron won with 66.10% of the votes, against 33.90% for Marine le Pen. A sign that discontent has grown with his first term.

This discontent also translated into lower voter turnout: according to projections, abstention will have been 28%, the highest in presidential elections since 1969, according to Reuters.

The first to react
Less than 10 minutes after the screenings, Marine Le Pen appeared on the phone on the balcony of the Pavilion d’Armenonville and hugged her supporters. She then took the stage and began her speech, acknowledging defeat but assuring that it was “a landslide victory”.

“We’ve been buried a thousand times, but a thousand times history has shown them wrong,” she said, causing a lot of enthusiasm among the hundreds of National Union supporters who are there.

“Despite two weeks of unfair, brutal and violent methods, the ideas we represent are reaching new heights”, he said, adding a promise and launching, from now, the campaign for the legislative: “More than ever, I will keep my commitment to France and the French.”

Source: With Agencies