Emanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen will square off in round two of the French elections as most expected.
Here are a few clips from Guardian French Presidential Election Live
Evening summary
Emmanuel Macron has beaten the far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the first round of the French presidential election, with a projected total of 23.7% to Le Pen’s 21.9%.
The two candidates – the first pro-European and internationalist, the other anti-EU and protectionist – will now face off in a second round run off on 7 May. Polls have consistently forecast Macron will beat Le Pen and become France’s next president.
The scandal-hit conservative candidate, François Fillon, and Socialist candidate, Benoît Hamon, both conceded defeat and called on their supporters to back Macron.
The first round result is an epochal political upheaval for France. For the first time in the nearly 60-year history of the Fifth Republic, neither of the candidates of the established parties of left and right will be in the run off.
Speaking in her home constituency of Hénin-Beaumont, Le Pen said the French people now faced a very simple choice:
“Either we continue on the path to complete deregulation, or you choose France. You now have the chance to choose real change. This is what I propose: real change. It is time to liberate the French nation from arrogant elites who want to dictate how it must behave. Because yes, I am the candidate of the people.”
Macron said that in the space of a year, since founding his En Marche! movement, it had “changed the face of French politics” and asked for a big victory for a large governing majority:
“I want to construct a majority to govern and to transform, of new talents, in which all will have their place. I will not ask where they come from, but whether they agree with the renewal of our politics, the security of the French people, reforming society and relaunching the European project. You are the face of this renewal. My fellow citizens, there is not more than one France. There is only one, ours, the France of patriots, in a Europe that protects and that we must reform. The task is immense, but I am ready, at your sides. Vive la République, vive la France.”
We are still awaiting the final interior ministry result and will bring that to you as soon as it is released.
With 97% Reporting
For a change, the pollsters got this election correct.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
The media hate Le Pen so much that AP is calling Far left Macron, the centrist candidate. Better the communists than the populists.
Dear Mish:
Did the pollsters get it right or do they fix elections better in France?
I suspect more likely the second.
Not far fetched,,,,Le Pen didn’t get a single vote in 56 towns. Duh?
Yeah that’s a bit on the impossible side.
Not town, 56 very small village under 100 habitants.
Not surprising since there are very few public lepen supporter in France, and even more in such small village where everybody knows who voted for who…
After the computer glitch, it seems this election need a little conspiration theory to be more sexy
Macron is pro-EU and Le Pen is anti-EU.
French women voters should note that at least five EU member nations just voted to give Saudi Arabia a seat on the UN Commission on the Status of Women – which is supposedly about women’s rights. The ballot was secret but the math indicates that at least five EU nations voted in favor.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-23/outrage-after-least-5-eu-nations-elect-saudi-arabia-un-womens-rights-council
Hasbra much ?
It will make it more convenient for Rino McCan’t and Lindsey the Poof to invade Saudi, once oil dependent promises made by the current puppet regime can’t be met, and Arab Spring spreads to Saudi as well. The current puppet regime know full and well how to play the West’s captive progressive indoctrinati for their own benefit, in order to protect them against their own designated underlings.
“Iiiitz for the wiiimenz! The neew guys are baaad to the wiiimenz! We must dooo somethingz! Boooomb Booomb! For the wiiiimenz!”
I said this last week, and I’ll say it again. Winning the election is easy, governing afterward will be much much much more difficult.
I don’t know how many of the defeated candidates’ supporters will blindly obey their failed candidate. Is Macron really predicted to get 60+ percent in the second round? Seems rather unlikely. How many Fillon / Melenchon supporters are going to scream a profanity and drink a case of wine (stay home)?
Even if every single Fillon / Melenchon supporter switches to Macron, Le Pen is still going to have a big support base — 25% at the minimum.
That is not an endorsement of Le Pen or her policies… its only a recognition that the “winner” of the election (whomever it is) will struggle to govern.
The Soros globalists will pull out all the stops to push Hilary on the voters… um, I meant Macron. That doesn’t mean they will prevail, it doesn’t mean Soros won’t be banned from many Eastern European countries for financing rebellion (its not just UC Berkley).
In the end, France will be in chaos no matter who wins. Macron wants to pretend illegal immigration isn’t a disaster, Le Pen wants to expel people who already don’t obey the law. Neither can pay for their dumb ideas, and neither has a credible plan to get the French economy moving.
I’ll stick with my forecast: Le Pen wins the election (because it doesn’t matter anyway); no one can actually govern. England wins the economy
The problem with the French, is they want their economy fixed but do not want to work. Production without producing.
Actually French industrial workers have the highest unit labor productivity on earth.
You misunderstand. I do not question that on an hourly basis. I am saying they do not like working many hours. They don’t!!
I don’t blame them, I don’t like working either.
vooch is a soros mouth piece. He/she/it does not think for itself; It just parrots whatever the extremist left wing media tells it to think. Waste of time trying to explain things to it
Will be interesting, to say the least…I am against political union of the EU so I am left with the only choice of wishing Le Pen the best of luck. Something telling in the way that socialists recommend a globalist for their voters…
I see the general election is about 2 weeks off.
A lot can happen in 2 weeks.
Let’s pray it doesn’t happen. But a terrorist attack on Paris could likely kick Le Pen over the finish line ahead of Macron.
At some point the liberals in France will say “Enough is enough!” and start voting for conservative candidates. It’s inevitable. Otherwise their nation will self-destruct.
Also wishing Le Pen the best of luck.
Congratulations on the first round. Remember there were some already double miscounted ballots in the first round from outside the country, so it isn’t looking too bad for her.
“in a Europe that protects and we must reform”. What kind of doublespeak is that?
Don’t forget the double ballot mailing to the expats. Wonder what devices they will accidentally on purpose do on the second round?
Given that the pollsters have been right on the money this time, if the pollsters get it right again it is curtains for Le Pen. I would be glad if it were Le Pen but it seems HIGHLY unlikely. It is unfortunate because if France gets into the Brexit train it would have brought about the well-deserved demise of the Euro. But then looks like Euro’s time is not yet up. If the French people wake up in the next 2 weeks then things could change dramatically. Hopefully the Italians will do what the French are not willing to do, pull the plug on Euro.
The demise of the Euro will trigger a global economic meltdown that will leave tens of millions unemployed in the USA and likely lead to leftist administrations for decades. Similar to the 1930’s through the 1970’s. Be careful what you wish for.
“The demise of the Euro will trigger a global economic meltdown that will leave tens of millions unemployed in the USA”
Huh? Why’s that then? The end of the EU will not stop countries trading with each other. Just replace it with a simple free-trade agreement and save all that money that today goes on an expensive and unaccountable bureaucracy….
“The System will Collapse” is the hobgoblinest of all the hobgoblins the indoctrinati have been told to be so scared of, that they volunteer their own daughters to spend the rest of their lives on their knees fellating banksters to avoid.
Of course, in reality, and as you’d hope most grown men would realize, hobgoblins are, tah-dah, imaginary.
41% of votes counted don’t want EU (Le Pen, Melanchon supporters). What about those who are so pissed off with politicians they didn’t even bother to vote?
With round 1 behind us, round 2 presents a really stark choice – it is very rare that two candidates are at opposite poles. It is either pro EU or anti EU. It is that simple.
Macron is going to get the left and immigrant vote. Le Pen will have to attract just about everything else to win. Can she do it? Sounds a lot like Clinton and Trump, doesn’t it?
Soros is becoming persona non grata in the United States. Is he trying to buy his way back into Europe by rescuing the EU one election at a time?
Picture a hundred people, sixty on one side say they vote one way, forty the other. There is two weeks to persuade ten to move to the forty side. Very difficult but possible… the 40/60 won’t be correct as those who voted other will not have properly felt what it is to commit to putting a tick against one of the remaining two, quite sure they already have an idea… but are they really going to eat from their dish when it is pulled under their noses? I think Le Pen has the smaller, but more solid, base – it is one she has personally worked on and been open to for years to escape some of the previous party labels. The other candidate has just appeared and is a cut and paste of whatever brings votes for previously established parties. I know which is more credible.
The elite in France are in the process of pulling a con on the voters- Macron is no independent- he will simply be a continuation of the Hollande government under another name.
France isn’t ready to change course, and I haven’t believed it would this entire time, but National Front is now the only opposition to the government in power now and after the first week of May. That is long term victory for Ms. Le Pen, and she knows it.
Yancey Ward – yes, Macron was groomed to take over from Hollande.
“Macron, a product of the prestigious Paris Institute of Political Studies and École National d’Administration, has the profile of an establishment figure in the French elite: After four post-graduate years at the Ministry of Economy, he left to work for Rothschild Bank, then returned to government in 2012 as an adviser to Hollande. In 2015, Macron announced he was no longer a member of the Socialist Party but an independent; he resigned his post as Economy Minister in August 2016, then formally launched his campaign that November. In a sense, having no solid electoral experience has made him something of a cipher, vulnerable to being characterized by the left as just another technocrat. In an anti-establishment environment, he needed to project an image different from that of his former Socialist Party colleagues.
So Macron turned to three young Frenchmen who got their start in politics as volunteers for Obama’s 2008 campaign, and who now run a political consulting and technology firm in Paris. Guillaume Liegey, Arthur Muller, and Vincent Pons met in Boston—Liegey and Muller studied at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, while Pons was a graduate student at MIT—and, after Obama’s victory, decided to explore which Obama-style tactics they’d be able to bring to France.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/04/france-election-macron-obama/523872/
This guy has some serious money behind him. Whose money? He launched his campaign in November of 2016, and suddenly has thousands and thousands of volunteers knocking on doors. That takes a lot of organization. Is this just more Soros money? And he’s another banker!
Come on, France. Don’t you see you’re being sucked in – again? If you do not vote for Le Pen now, your country is doomed.
Liegey and Muller studied at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government,
haha -tells me all I need to know about Macron and his goals. .
The French citizens aren’t stupid, and if they are against more immigration they will certainly show up to vote on election day. Still good news for Le Pen, no matter what the media says. Harvard has done studies on how to influence voters in a particular direction, and telling them they need not bother turning out because their candidate can’t win is just one of their tricks. It didn’t work with Trump.
I think that only works when the gap is very large indeed else there is a lot to play for and that calls out the masses.
“Macron is no independent- he will simply be a continuation of the Hollande government under another name”
…
Will he keep Hollande’s $135K personal hairstylist on the government payroll??
This is what the French are voting for: http://heavy.com/news/2017/04/emmanuel-macron-wife-brigitte-age-photos-france-president-married-teacher-kids-trogneux/
Funny! I especially liked this one:
5. The Couple Have Made a Decision Not to Have Children
Aged 63 and she’s made a decision not to have children. No doubt this was done to reduce their carbon footprint and reduce global warming.
The temptation to look elsewhere is bound to be high when President. AC or DC.
Some sort of Oedipus complex there. No telling which way he might swing in the future – Obama called him recently, just sayin’…
Best thing about Sarkozy was Carla. She was a stunner.
“A computer bug in France’s electoral roll has meant some half a million voters could in theory cast two ballots. And some are tempted.
With the first round of the presidential election just over a week away (April 23rd) French voters around the country have been receiving their ballot cards through the post as usual.
But many have received two – in fact some half a million voters could cast two ballots thanks to the bug, according to authorities.
The duplicate voting cards were sent out mainly in the cases where people have moved homes since the last time they voted.
Normally the electoral roll is automatically updated when people register their new address but for some reason the system has not been working.
Voting twice is illegal of course but in a year four candidates appear to have a fighting chance of making the second round including the extreme right Marine Le Pen, far left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, independent novice Emmanuel Macron and scandal-hit François Fillon, some voters appear tempted to cast two ballots. […]
But the electoral roll bug has not just resulted in duplicate ballot cards. It’s also apparently resulted in some foreigners, who normally wouldn’t have the right to vote, being send a voting card.
Including a Swedish woman named Alice, who lives in France. She too is tempted to flout the rules.
“I do not know if I will go and vote and but I am really tempted, I really want to,” she told Europe1 radio.”
https://www.thelocal.fr/20170414/and-what-if-half-a-million-french-people-voted-twice
Macron will be elected this is a done deal. And the computer bug is not relevant as i explained earlier.
“God laughs at creatures who deplore the effects of which they cherish their causes”.
The French woted Macron, a disguised Holland, like if 5 years of non sense had not been enough….
They want the young, the modern, the pro-German, the globalist, the open, the financial, but they will hate the effects this will produce, they will hate Macron, in less than a year.
Disappointment is unavoidable because, at the beginning, there is deception. Macron not only does not have a magic wand but his plan, his agenda are the opposite of what the people who will vote for him want. He wants to take them for a ride to the benefit of Germans and national and international finance promising them that tomorrow will be better.
Yesterday was clearly a globalist victory, showing the strength of propaganda. After Obama the establishment did it again, managing to put a puppet into power, to drive their agenda.
And even when they loose, such as brexit or trump election, they always manage to twist a few arms later to get it their way.
Very interesting times indeed!
Macron will use UK as a whipping post to deflect attention.
There will be more of the Hollande punishment attitude.
His meeting with May was not positive and he made his intentions clear.
He was escorted out of No. 10.
“Macron left the Commission, which was shelved September 2010, to work for Rothschilds & Cie Banque where he became an overnight millionaire while working the Nestle acquisition of Pfizer’s nutritional outlet, which closed in 2012. Nestle is a client of Rothschilds. Macron had no experience in acquisitions and mergers whatsoever…
What does one do when one makes millions overnight? Apparently one quits.
He then left Rothschilds to work for Hollande as deputy secretary general of Elysee, and eventually Minister of Economy, Industry and Digital Data in 2014 where he served 18 months before running for Presidency. I’d call that a pretty fast paced runup with little to no political experience or business savvy.
Sounding phishy? Because it is.
All of these positions seem a bit odd for a very junior man with no experience in any of these respective employment quarters. And so, it would appear that Rothschilds saw in Macron what they saw in Obama before he too suddenly became a ‘millionaire’.
Leaving a company, Rothschilds, where he was making millions, to suddenly becoming a deputy government official making less than $70,000 per year and rising to a Ministerial position in less than 2 years, is more than a bit odd.
Ministers in France are typically appointed after a tedious reign of past accomplishments and decades of public service. Macron was appointed at the ripe age of 36 with barely a smidge of experience. But it gets a bit more murky:”
https://helenaglass.net/2017/02/03/frances-emmanuel-macron-groomed-by-rothschilds/
Given how dirty politics is and the increasing complexity of Government can we imagine him driving the ship of state?
EU/Germany will have him as a poodle, placed on purpose.
Rothschild was against Brexit, France questioning EU membership will not be allowed.
Macron is a shoo-in by we all know who.
UK MSM are loving every minute of this. BBC are as happy as a pig in sh*t.
Ahhhhhh – he’s another Jesuit.
Add to the EU list.
Happy Days are here again
Siemens up 5%
BASF up 4%
and the trading day is only 1/2 over.
crazy exuberance in Frankfurt
i think Le Pen needed first round vote of at least 25%
to stand a chance of overall victory.
looks like she’s lost it. Pity.
still, i feel Euroscepticism has and will continue to sweep France and EU
in general, regardless of the actual winner.
Riots seem to be the order of the day in Paris, currently.
More of the same with Macron, as new Socialist leader of France.
Only Le Pen could have stood a chance of a change in course.
Wouldn’t altogether rule out a military coup detat (against Macron)
if current chaos continues
LePen is mightier than the Macaroon cookie!
“still, i feel Euroscepticism has and will continue to sweep France and EU
in general, regardless of the actual winner.”
…
Absolutely
The SOP policy of the elites (just as in the US) involves clinging to their wealth (at all costs) all the while exacerbating the wealth divide.
Tensions will only grow.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Prime Minister May of the UK and LePen started to team up these two weeks (promise a trade deal) since both are running for political office. A French / UK alliance would clearly upset Merkel and neuter Juncker.