French President Emmanuel Macron and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen on Monday kicked off a final fortnight of bruising campaigning for the French presidency in a run-off that polls predict risks being tight.
With 97 percent votes counted, Macron came in first in Sunday’s first round of voting with 27.6 percent of the vote. Le Pen was second with 23.4 percent.
As the top two finishers, they advance to a second-round on April 24.
Far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon came close to beating Le Pen for the second spot after a late surge gave him a score of just under 22 percent.
The duel between Macron and Le Pen is a re-run of the 2017 election final from which Macron emerged victorious with 66 percent. But this time polls predict a closer contest.
“Make no mistake: nothing is decided,” Macron told cheering supporters at his campaign headquarters Sunday night. “The debate that we are going to have over the next fortnight will be decisive for our country and Europe.”
Macron said he would be out campaigning on Monday in northern France, while Le Pen is set to meet her campaign team before resuming her months-long grassroots efforts in small towns and rural France later in the week.
“A sad repetition,” left-leaning daily Liberation called the Macron-Le Pen duel on Monday, adding: “This time it’s really scary.”
The candidates from France’s traditional parties of government — the Socialists and the Republicans — meanwhile suffered humiliating defeats.
Polls gauging second-round voting intentions mostly point to around 53 percent for Macron and 47 percent for Le Pen. One poll, however, by the Ifop-Fiducial group suggested Macron could have only a razor-thin win with 51 percent versus 49 percent.
