Home » Macron and Le Pen enter the second round of French elections, who will have the last laugh? – Xinhua English.news.cn

Macron and Le Pen enter the second round of French elections, who will have the last laugh? – Xinhua English.news.cn

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Xinhua News Agency, Paris, April 10 (International observation) Macron and Le Pen enter the second round of the French election, who will have the last laugh

Xinhua News Agency reporter Tang Ji

The results of exit polls released by French media on the evening of the 10th showed that incumbent President Macron and the far-right party “National League” candidate Marine Le Pen won the first round of votes in the French presidential election held on the same day. A decisive battle begins in the second round of voting.

Analysts pointed out that, as in the 2017 presidential election, Macron, who represented the centrist, and Le Pen, who represented the far-right, entered the second round of the general election again. profound changes occurred. The rise of the far right has made Macron’s re-election full of uncertainties.

Re-election still in suspense

According to the latest statistics from the Elabe polling company cited by French information TV station BFMTV, among the 12 candidates competing in the first round of the presidential election, Macron won 28.2% of the votes and Le Pen won 23.4% of the votes. The two won the top two votes, but both failed to get more than half of the votes, so they will enter the second round. Jean-Luc Melenchon, the candidate of the far-left party Indomitable France, won 21.2% of the vote, while Eric Zemour, the candidate of the far-right Restoration party, won 7.3% of the vote.

Since Macron came to power, he has implemented a series of reforms, but failed to fundamentally solve many problems in France’s politics, economy and society. The public opinion support rate once fell to a historical low of 23%. But with the gradual easing of the new crown epidemic in France and the “good result” of 7% economic growth last year, Macron’s approval rating has been slowly rising. During the Ukrainian crisis, as the leader of the rotating EU presidency, Macron actively mediated between Russia and Ukraine, and his personal approval rate rose sharply, once exceeding 30%.

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However, the strong rise of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen poses a huge threat to Macron’s bid for re-election. According to the French newspaper Le Figaro, polls conducted after the first round of voting showed that Macron and Le Pen may have about 51% and 49% support respectively in the second round, the gap is very small, and 2017. In the second round of the general election, Macron defeated Le Pen with 66.1% of the votes to 33.9%. Therefore, whether Macron can be re-elected is still in suspense.

claims vary

Macron and Le Pen delivered speeches separately on the evening of the 10th. Macron called on voters to put their trust in his “progressive, open, French and European campaign platform”. “What I want is a France that belongs to a stronger Europe, not a France that leaves the European Union with only populism and xenophobia,” he said.

In her speech, Le Pen called on “all voters who did not vote for Macron in the first round” to support her, stressing that she would guarantee national independence, control immigration and restore law and order.

The French “Le Monde” published an analysis article pointing out that Macron and Le Pen will bring different futures to the French. Macron, a staunch promoter of European integration, sees the EU as the backbone to get France out of trouble, economic growth and jobs; Le Pen emphasizes nationalism, France first. Although Le Pen has abandoned the slogan of leaving the euro zone due to political considerations, his campaign platform is still full of populism.

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In an interview with French media before the election, Macron pointed out that far-right forces have used the panic of French society in terms of the new crown epidemic, geopolitics and ecological environment to continuously expand their influence. He appealed to the French not to retreat to a completely closed social system because of fear of social “inequality”, and believed that France must take the road of an open market economy.

Political ecological change

In the 2017 French presidential election, French voters for the first time abandoned traditional left and right parties, sending Macron and Le Pen into the second round of the showdown. Five years later, the two will face off against each other again. The traditional left-wing big parties have suffered a crushing defeat in the first round of voting. Among them, the Republican candidate of the right-wing party, Valerie Peckres, won 4.9% of the vote, and the candidate of the left-wing Socialist Party, Anne Hidalgo won only about 1.7% of the vote. This shows that the French political ecology has undergone profound changes.

At the same time, the voter base of the far-right in France is expanding. Le Pen’s 23.4 percent of the vote was higher than her 21.3 percent in the first round of the 2017 election, according to BFMTV. The other two far-right candidates, Zemour and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, won 7.3% and 1.8% of the vote respectively, bringing the entire far-right camp to nearly 30% of the total votes, setting a record in French political history. .

The analysis article of “Le Monde” pointed out that from the election results, France has suffered from economic recession and high unemployment for a long time. choose between. “Le Figaro” also pointed out in an editorial that left-wing and right-wing parties have disappeared in the finals of the presidential election, giving way to the “populist” camp, and this new political pattern may exist for a long time in the future.

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After the preliminary results of the vote on the 10th were released, Melenchon, Hidalgo and French Communist Party candidate Fabien Russell all called on their supporters to “boycott the far right” in the second round of voting. Two far-right candidates, Zemour and DuPont-Aignan, called on their supporters to vote for Le Pen. A tit-for-tat showdown has begun.

Dominique Rainey, a professor at Sciences Po, France, said that five years later, the “Macron-Le Pen” confrontation reappears. “Everything shows that we are not ushering in an ordinary election”, and the French will once again face “Historic Choice”. (Participating reporters: Liu Fang, Xu Yongchun, Xing Jianqiao, Sun Xinjing) (End)

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