Incumbent French President Emmanuel Macron and presidential candidate Marine Le Pen will square off in an anticipated close presidential election runoff on April 24.
With 96 percent of the votes counted for Sunday's first round, Macron, a pro-European economic liberal, garnered 27.41% of the votes, and Le Pen, a far-right nationalist, got 24.03%.
Except for Eric Zemmour, other major contenders accepted defeat in the face of the results. Zemmour asked voters to reject the far-right in the second round of the presidential race.
Macron will have to strive hard to win over frustrated voters after five years in power, in which his aggressive approach has enraged many. On the other hand, Le Pen's image was softened and became less extreme, which worked to her advantage, per Al Jazeera report. Hence, given the current situation, he can't assume that voters will rally behind a traditional anti-far-right candidate.
Though the incumbent president leads the race as of now, he admitted that the second round of the election for the French government's top seat is going to be a tough one- and Le Pen is up for the challenge.
French Election Predictions
Macron already faced Le Pen in the presidential runoff five years ago. But all opinion polls show the leader of the National Rally is much closer this time to a potential win.
Ifop pollster François Dabi said his company's runoff prediction of Macron with 51% and Le Pen with 49% was the closest they'd ever been, per BBC report. According to an Elabe poll, the disparity is 52 % to 48 %, and an Ipsos poll suggests it is even wider.
According to Elabe pollsters, one in four young voters supported the president, while more than one in three 18-24 year-olds chose Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Marine Le Pen was most popular among those aged 35 to 64, while the president was most popular among those aged 65 and up.
Macron, Le Pen Vie for Presidency
The duel will begin on Monday, according to a report from the Associated Press. Macron is visiting an underprivileged district of northern France, near Le Pen's electoral bastion of Henin-Beaumont, where a majority of voters backed her.
Le Pen's National Rally officials will plan their strategy on Monday, as the lady contender summed the runoff as "a fundamental choice between two opposing visions of the future" for the voters.
President Macron stated that he would be visiting several French provinces. He had been missing from most of the political campaign before Sunday's first round, focusing a large portion of his time on diplomatic efforts over the Ukraine conflict.
Macron has criticized Le Pen for promoting a risky platform of racist and destructive policies. Le Pen wants to remove certain Muslims' liberties, such as the right to wear headscarves in public, and dramatically decrease immigration from outside Europe.
Meanwhile, Le Pen's allies aim to capitalize on public outrage at Macron's policies, which are perceived mainly to benefit the wealthy.
The election results will have far-reaching geopolitical implications as Europe strives to control the devastation inflicted by that war between Russia and Ukraine.
Macron has been a major supporter of the European Union's sanctions against Russia, while Le Pen has expressed concern about their impact on French living standards. Macron is known as a strong proponent of NATO and has close relations with the EU's 27 countries.