In a repeat of the 2017 Presidential election, French voters chose Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen as their top two choices in the first round of voting on Sunday.
According to Le Monde in English, preliminary exit polls conducted by Ipsos-Sopra Steria show Macron running four points ahead of his 2017 number and Le Pen running two points ahead of hers. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the Left of the Left France Insoumise party candidate, is in third place with 21.1% a point-and-a-half ahead of his 2017 number. The extreme far-right candidate, Eric Zemmour finished fourth with 7.0% of the vote. www.lemonde.fr/...
Sunday’s results will kick off two weeks of dealmaking and scrambling for endorsements by the two finalists. In the minutes after polls closed, there were already some announcements. Éric Zemmour and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan called on their voters to go with Le Pen. The Socialist candidate, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, endorsed Macron.
Macron prevailed over Le Pen 66% to 34% in 2017 www.interieur.gouv.fr/… but the latest public opinion polls show a much closer election this year:
Whether voters on the Left will unite behind the centrist Macron to block Le Pen as they did in the past remains to be seen. Mélenchon’s voters will be key. In a speech to his supporters Sunday evening he said, “"We must not give a vote to Ms. Le Pen," and announced that members of his party will be polled as to an official endorsement, if any.
Here are the results compared to the vote totals from 2017.