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French polling agencies have projected that incumbent Emmanuel Macron and far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen are heading for another winner-takes-all runoff in the French presidential election, with their fierce political rivalry and sharply opposing visions pulling clear of a crowded field of 12 candidates in the first round of voting.
If confirmed by official vote counts expected later on Sunday night (Monday, AEST), the pollsters' initial projections mean France is teeing up for a repeat of the 2017 head-to-head contest that put Mr Macron into power — but there is no guarantee that this time the outcome will be the same.
The election's result will will have wide international influence as Europe tries to contain the havoc wreaked by Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Mr Macron has strongly backed European Union sanctions on Russia while Ms Le Pen has worried publicly about their impact on French living standards. Mr Macron also is a firm supporter of NATO.
READ MORE: Ukraine digs in to fight Russia's looming eastern offensive
In the 27-member EU, only France has a nuclear arsenal and a UN Security Council veto.
Mr Macron, a 44-year-old political centrist, won by a landslide five years ago to become France's youngest president. But he is bracing for a far tougher runoff battle this time on April 24 against his 53-year-old political nemesis. Ms Le Pen is promising seismic shifts for France — both domestically and internationally — if elected as the country's first woman president, and appears closer than ever to have a chance of reaching the presidential Elysee Palace.
The projections showed both Mr Macron and Ms Le Pen on course to improve on their 2017 first-round showings, highlighting how French politics have increasingly become polarised. The projections showed Mr Macron with a comfortable first-round lead of between 27 per cent-to-29 per cent support, ahead of Le Pen, who is expected to capture 23 per cent-to-24 per cent of the vote.
The projections showed hard-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon — one of half a dozen candidates on the left — falling short of the runoff, heading for third place.
Some presidential candidates who were defeated Sunday were so alarmed by the possibility of Ms Le Pen beating Mr Macron in the runoff that they urged their supporters to shift their second-round votes to the incumbent. Mr Melenchon, addressing his supporters, some of them in tears, repeated three times that Le Pen shouldn't get "one single vote."
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Describing herself as "profoundly worried," defeated conservative Valerie Pecresse warned of "the chaos that would ensue" if Ms Le Pen is elected and said she has never been so close to power. Ms Pecresse said she'd vote for Macron in the runoff.
Ms Le Pen thanked her supporters Sunday night, saying the "French people honoured me by qualifying me for the second round" on April 24. She called on those who didn't vote for Mr Macron in the first round to join her for the second.
Mr Macron for months looked like a shoo-in to become France's first president in 20 years to win a second term. But National Rally leader Ms Le Pen ate into his polling lead in the campaign's closing stages, as the pain of rising gas, food and energy prices became a dominant election theme for many low-income households.
To beat Ms Le Pen in the runoff, Mr Macron must pick apart her years-long rebranding effort to make herself seem less extreme, a makeover that has including showing off her love of cats. Mr Macron has accused Ms Le Pen of pushing an extremist manifesto of racist and ruinous policies. Ms Le Pen wants to ban Muslim headscarves in French streets and halal and kosher butchers, and drastically reduce immigration from outside Europe.
Source: 9News
