The first round of voting in the French presidential election set up a winner-takes-all second round, with centrist incumbent Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen both advanced.
The same outcome this time is not certain, despite the fact that they won their last contest by a large margin. The second-round vote on April 24 will be a new election and will be a fight between the two men.
As she makes her third attempt to become France's first woman president, Le Pen was rewarded handsomely at the ballot box for her years-long effort to rebrand herself as more pragmatic and less extreme. Le Pen has been accused of pushing racist, ruinous policies. Le Pen wants to ban Muslims from wearing headscarves in public and reduce immigration from outside Europe.
She got her best-ever first-round tally of votes on Sunday. With most votes counted, Macron had 27% and Le Pen had 22%. Jean-Luc Melenchon was third and missed out on the two-candidate runoff.
Despite his presidency being plagued by an almost constant series of both domestic and international crises, Macron improved on his first-round showing. Russia's war in Ukraine overshadowed the election and diverted his focus from the campaign.
With polling suggesting that the second round could be close, Macron immediately started throwing his energy into the battle.
Speaking to supporters who chanted "five more years", he warned that nothing is done and that the campaign will be decisive for the country.
He claimed that Le Pen would align France with populists and xenophobes.
He wants to reach out to all those who want to work in France. He promised to implement the project of progress, of French and European openness and independence we have advocated for.
The outcome of the election will have a big impact on the international situation as Europe tries to contain the damage wreaked by Russian President Putin. Le Pen is worried about the impact of EU sanctions on French living standards. The European Union and NATO have close collaboration.
For months, it looked like he was going to become France's first president in 20 years. Le Pen, in a late surge, tapped into the foremost issue on many French voters' minds: soaring costs for food, gas and heating due to rising inflation and the repercussions of Western sanctions on Russia.
To win in round two, both candidates need to reach out to voters who supported them.
The vote will be hard for some of the people who lost. The second-round match-up was an awful prospect for a 21-year-old student at Sorbonne University who voted for Melenchon.
She said she would vote for him in round two to keep Le Pen out of the Elysee Palace.
She said that it would be a survival vote rather than a vote with her heart.
She sought to reach out to left-wing supporters for round two by promising fixes for France.
She said the second round presents voters with a choice between two visions of the future, one of division, injustice and disorder, imposed by Emmanuel Macron to the benefit of the few, or the other of French people around social justice and protection.
Some of her defeated rivals urged their supporters to vote for the incumbent in the second round because they were so worried about Le Pen. "We must not give one vote to Mrs. Le Pen," Melenchon told his supporters.
The defeated conservative candidate warned of the chaos that would occur if Le Pen was elected. She said she would vote for him.
To beat Le Pen, Macron will try to pick apart her attempts to be a less dangerous political force and highlight her love of cats.
Her softer image made some voters suspicious.
Yves Maillot said he voted for Macron to counterbalance Le Pen. Even though she has dropped her plan to take France out of the EU, she still has a long-standing hostility to it.
I don't think she has changed at all.
There is a
Associated Press journalists. Patrick Hermansen and Elaine Ganley contributed to the report.
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