: French President Macron to Face Far-Right Rival Le Pen (Again) in Runoff Election #WorldNEWS (PARIS) — Incumbent Emmanuel Macron will face far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen in a winner-takes-all

French President Macron to Face Far-Right Rival Le Pen (Again) in Runoff Election #WorldNEWS
(PARIS) — Incumbent Emmanuel Macron will face far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen in a winner-takes-all runoff for the French presidency, after they both advanced Sunday in the first round of voting in the country’s election to set up another head-to-head clash of their sharply opposing visions for France.
But while Macron won their last contest in 2017 by a landslide to become Frances youngest-ever president, the same outcome this time is far from guaranteed. Macron, now 44, emerged ahead from Sundays first round, but the runoff is essentially a new election and the next two weeks of campaigning to the April 24 second-round vote promise to be bruising and confrontational against his 53-year-old political nemesis.
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Savvier and more polished as she makes her third attempt to become Frances first woman president, Le Pen was handsomely rewarded Sunday at the ballot box for her years-long effort to rebrand herself as more pragmatic and less extreme. Macron has accused Le Pen of pushing an extremist manifesto of racist, ruinous policies. Le Pen wants to roll back some rights for Muslims, banning them from wearing headscarves in public, and to drastically reduce immigration from outside Europe.
On Sunday, she racked up her best-ever first-round tally of votes. With most votes counted, Macron had just over 27% and Le Pen had just under 24%. Hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon was third, missing out on the two-candidate runoff, with close to 22%.
Macron also improved on his first-round showing in 2017, despite his presidency being rocked by an almost unrelenting series of both domestic and international crises. They include Russias war in Ukraine that overshadowed the election and diverted his focus from the campaign.
With polling suggesting that the runoff against Le Pen could be close, Macron immediately started throwing his energies into the battle.
Addressing supporters Sunday night who chanted “five more years,” Macron warned that “nothing is done” and said the runoff campaign will be “decisive for our country and for Europe. ”
Claiming that Le Pen would align France with “populists and xenophobes,” he said: “Thats not us. ”
“I want to reach out to all those who want to work for France, he said. He vowed to “implement the project of progress, of French and European openness and independence we have advocated for. ”
The election outcome will have wide international influence as Europe struggles to contain the havoc wreaked by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Macron has strongly backed European Union sanctions on Russia while Le Pen has worried about their impact on French living standards.