LIVE. Macron beats Le Pen to stay president of France for five more years | Instagram VTM NEWS

The 44-year-old Macron, leader of the liberal center party La République en Marche (LREM), can therefore call himself a resident of the Elysée for five years longer. Le Pen, leader of the far-right and nationalist Rassemblement National (RN), has narrowed a major gap in the polls in recent weeks, but clearly gave up on Macron in both the first and second rounds.

Nearly 50 million French people were able to vote, but turnout was, as expected, low: Le Monde writes, based on forecasts, that 28.2 percent of those entitled to vote stayed at home. It has been more than fifty years since such a small part of the French went to vote. The difference is smaller than in 2017, when Macron took 66.10% of the vote. That was also against Le Pen.

In the first round, Macron received 27.84 percent of the vote, 53-year-old Le Pen was able to convince 23.15 percent of the voters. Most of the losing candidates from the first round called for either to vote for Macron in the second round or not to vote for Le Pen. Only the far-right Eric Zemmour asked his voters to go for Le Pen.

President Emmanuel Macron reacts to his election victory in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. “Thanks everyone. After five years as president of France, a majority of compatriots trust me,” Macron said.

In his speech, Macron also targets French people who voted for Le Pen. Macron asked his supporters not to bully Marine Le Pen: “No, you don’t have to bully anyone. From the beginning I asked not to whistle. For from now on I am no longer the candidate of one camp, but the president of all.”

Macron thanked voters who voted for him “not to support my ideas but to block those of the far right,” he said, adding that he was “aware” that this vote gives him certain obligations for the next few years.

Macron emphasizes that he will come up with new plans over the next five years and will continue to work towards a strong Europe.

Some 3,000 supporters and 1,500 journalists attended the French president’s speech, according to the French newspaper Le Monde. For several minutes before his speech, Macron was seen walking towards the podium with his wife Brigitte and a group of children.

Marine Le Pen called her score (42.4% of the vote) “a resounding victory” in an initial response on Sunday evening. “I will remain committed to France and the French (…) I will lead this fight,” Le Pen said from her election headquarters.

“This result is a testimony to the French and European leaders of the great mistrust of the French people towards them,” added the leader of the far-right nationalist Rassemblement National (RN). She also said “it is still possible to beat Macron in the parliamentary elections” to be held in June.

Leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon has said in a response to the initial forecast that Emmanuel Macron is the “worst elected president in France”. He calls on French people who are dissatisfied with the system to “don’t give up the fight”. Mélenchon received 21.95 percent of the vote in the first round of voting two weeks ago.

In his speech, which came just after Le Pen’s on Sunday evening, Mélenchon calls it “good news” that Le Pen has been defeated. He says the battle for the parliamentary elections, which will follow later this year, will start immediately. That way, “Macron can still be defeated,” says Mélenchon.

The left-wing candidate was the big winner in many cities during the first round, finishing in third place. He called on his supporters not to vote for Marine Le Pen, but expressed no support for Macron.

Mélenchon says Macron was elected “in an ocean of blank votes”. In recent weeks, many French people have said they do not know who to vote for and compared the choice between the incumbent Macron and the right-wing politician Le Pen to “a choice between the plague and cholera”.

The radical right-wing Eric Zemmour, who was eliminated in the first round of the French presidential elections, has “called on the nationalist movements to unite for the parliamentary elections”. He expressed his disappointment after Emmanuel Macron’s re-election on Sunday.

“This is the eighth time that the Le Pen name has been defeated,” he said earlier, referring to the successive -losing- candidatures of Jean-Marie Le Pen and his daughter Marine.

Of the losing presidential candidates, only far-right Eric Zemmour asked his voters to vote for Le Pen in the second round, albeit reluctantly. With Zemmour, Le Pen had a far-right rival in this year’s election, which stranded at about 7 percent in the first round.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, the father of Marine Le Pen, was defeated in 2002 by incumbent right-wing President Jacques Chirac. Emmanuel Macron’s win marks the first time since Chirac’s election victory that a sitting French president has been re-elected.

For a long time it looked like Macron might be allowed to sign a second five-year term freewheeling, but the bike sputtered somewhat in the final weeks before the first round. Le Pen, the leader of the far-right and nationalist Rassemblement National, managed to close a major backlog in the polls in recent weeks, but eventually had to give up. In the first round, Macron received 27.84 percent of the vote, Le Pen was able to convince 23.15 percent of the voters.

Also see: Macron accuses Le Pen of financial ties to Russia