French President Emmanuel Macron won 27.8 percent of the vote in the first round of the presidential election. That became clear on Monday afternoon when the last counts came in. Marine Le Pen finished at 23.2 percent.
The gap between the social-liberal Macron (La République En Marche!) and the far-right Le Pen (Rassemblement National) is greater than in 2017, when Macron gained 2.7 percentage points more than his far-right competitor. Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the left-wing party La France Insoumise finished third with 22 percent of the vote.
Just under 36 million people went to the polls. This puts the voter turnout at 73.7 percent. Only in 2002, when about 71.6 percent went to vote, was the turnout lower.
Macron and Le Pen now advance to the second round of the presidential election, which will take place on April 24. For the time being, Macron is also heading for profit there, but the fluctuations in the polls show that many French people are not yet convinced of their choice. It is far from certain that the votes that went to Mélenchon in the first round will now go to Macron. The 7.1 percent of the vote for Éric Zemmour, who places himself to the right of Le Pen, is expected to go largely to Le Pen.
Also read: Macron is far from beating nationalist-right Marine Le Pen