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French presidential election 2017: Macron wins French presidency with over 66% of votes

The new president of France is Emmanuel Macron. With more than 35 million of France’s 47 million registered voters accounted for, official Interior Ministry figures confirmed independent centrist Macron had been elected president with 66 percent of valid votes cast so far.

About 12 percent of votes cast were either blank or spoiled, the official figures showed, while 24.8 percent of the voters accounted for abstained. Thus, Emmanuel Macron was voted by over 20.7 million Frenchmen, while Marine Le Pen had 10.6 million votes in her favor.

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UPDATE: U.S President Donald Trump on Sunday congratulated Emmanuel Macron on winning the French presidency election and added he was looking forward to working with him.

“Congratulations to Emmanuel Macron on his big win today as the next President of France. I look very much forward to working with him!” Trump said on his official Twitter feed.

Macron wins election in France

Emmanuel Macron's supporters celebrate his election victory outside the Louvre. At 39, Macron will become France’s youngest leader since Napoleon when he is inaugurated this weekend. He has promised to reform the European Union and French bureaucracy.Far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen conceded, saying the country has "chosen continuity."

Posted by Washington Post World on 7 Mai 2017

UPDATE: The President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker congratulated Emmanuel Macron on his victory in French presidential elections on Sunday saying he was delighted Macron defended a strong and progressive Europe.

“I am delighted that the ideas you defended of a strong and progressive Europe, which protects all its citizens, will be those that you will carry into your presidency in the debate about the history of Europe,” Juncker said in a letter.

He said the Commission, which is the European Union’s executive arm, was also seeking to build a better Europe and expected to work together with Paris on that.

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“The European Commision has been working for two and half years to build a better Europe, a Europe which protects and defends our citizens and gives them the means to react,” Juncker said in the latter of congratulations to Macron.

“You know my determination to follow this agenda until the end of my term. I have full confidence that our collaboration will be very fruitful and will allow us to further our common goals together,” he said.

UPDATE: Outgoing French President Francois Hollande on Sunday said that centrist Emmanuel Macron’s victory in France’s presidential election showed most voters wanted to unite around “the values of the Republic”.

Hollande said in a statement he had called Macron to congratulate his former economy minister after he defeated anti-EU, anti-immigrant candidate Marine Le Pen.

“His big victory confirms that a very large majority of our fellow citizens wanted to unite around the values of the Republic and show their attachment to the European Union,” the statement said.

Hollande’s former prime minister Manuel Valls called separately for a broad presidential majority to be built around Macron in legislative elections next month.

UPDATE: German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman congratulated Emmanuel Macron on his election on Sunday to the French presidency, saying his win was a victory for a united Europe.

“Congratulations Emmanuel Macron. Your victory is a victory for a strong united Europe and for the Franco-German friendship,” Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said in tweets in German and French.

UPDATE: British Prime Minister Theresa May has congratulated Emmanuel Macron on his success in winning the French presidential election, an emailed statement from May’s office said, according to Reuters.

“The Prime Minister warmly congratulates President-elect Macron on his election success. France is one of our closest allies, and we look forward to working with the new president on a wide range of shared priorities,” the statement.

UPDATE: French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has called Emmanuel Macron to congratulate him and says the vote confirms her National Front party and its allies as the leader of France’s opposition, Associated Press reports.

“The National Front … must deeply renew itself in order to rise to the historic opportunity and meet the French people’s expectations,” Le Pen said in a brief address to supporters shortly after initial projections were released, according to Reuters.

“I will propose to start this deep transformation of our movement in order to make a new political force,” she added.

UPDATE: Emmanuel Macron will be president of France after beating Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front by 65 percent to 35 percent in Sunday’s runoff, Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique said, citing a projection based on early results by pollster Ipsos.

An independent centrist and former economy minister, Macron would become France’s youngest head of state, aged just 39.

UPDATE: Turnout was just over 65% at 17:00 local time (15:00 GMT), down from almost 72% at the same time in 2012, according to the interior ministry, BBC reports.

UPDATE: The final abstention level in the second round of the French presidential election is likely to stand at between 25-27 percent, according to four polls published on Sunday, Reuters reports.

A survey from Ifop-Fiducial put the abstention rate at 25 percent. Polls from Ipsos Sopra Steria and Elabe estimated the abstention rate at 26 percent while another poll from Harris Interactive estimated that rate at 27 percent.

UPDATE: Turnout figures for the second round of the French presidential election showed a 65.30 percent participation rate by around 1700 local time (1500 GMT), the Interior Ministry said on Sunday, confirming earlier reports.

That level was lower than at the same stage of polling day in the past three presidential elections.

Those participation rate figures compared with a turnout of around 72 percent at the same time in 2012, a 75.1 percent turnout in 2007, and a 67.6 percent turnout in 2002.

Voter surveys show that it is unclear what the turnout rate could mean for the outcome.

UPDATE: Louvre grounds, where Macron is due to speak later, evacuated for security checks

UPDATE: Turnout figures for the second round of the French presidential election showed a 28.23 percent participation rate by midday local time, lower than five years ago, the Interior Ministry said on Sunday.

The participation rate figures compared with a comparable figure of 30.7 percent at the same time during the last election in 2012, 34.1 percent in 2007, and 26.2 percent in 2002.

UPDATE: Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen voted in Henin-Beaumont.

UPDATE: Emmanuel Macron, the favorite candidate to become the next president of France, voted in Touquet at Pas-de-Calais. He was accompanied by his wife, Brigitte Macron.

UPDATE: Technical problems at voting machine in Issy-les-Moulineaux delayed the opening of voting stations.

UPDATE: Current president Francois Hollande voted for his successor in Tulle.

UPDATE: The Femen, the French branch of the feminist protest group founded in Ukraine, mobilized against Marine Le Pen in Henin-Beaumont, where the far-right candidate voted.

UPDATE: Security measures to ensure the safety of the second round were increased. Thus, only in Paris are more than 12,000 police and military on the streets.

UPDATE: Voting stations opened in France for the second round of the presidential election, with opinion polls indicating Emmanuel Macron was likely to beat Marine Le Pen.

Forecasts proved to be accurate for the presidential election’s first round last month and financial markets have risen in response to Macron’s widening lead after a bitter television debate earlier in the week.

The two candidates face off in the second round on May 7, where Macron is considered the front-runner. According to recent polling by Elabe, Emmanuel Macron would take 65 per cent of the vote in a second-round run-off against Le Pen.

Polls suggest that the leader of the movement En Marche! (On the Move!) would attract a wider spectrum of second-round voters than the candidate of  the National Front, pulling in left-leaning voters from Socialist presidential candidate Benoit Hamon and leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon, as well as those leaning to the right that voted for the Republican candidate Francois Fillon in the first round.

Around 46.87 million voters are registered to vote in 66,546 polling stations, several of them protected  by armed police and soldiers, part of the  heightened security measures under the state of emergency. After the first round, the voting turnout was 78,69%, according to the data provided by the French Interior Minister.

The first round of presidential election took place on April 23. Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen have both progressed from the first round in the French presidential election.

French presidential election 2017
Photo: .interieur.gouv.fr

Centrist Emmanuel Macron won 24.01 percent of the votes in the first round of the French presidential elections on Sunday, final results from the interior ministry showed on Monday.

Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen won 21.30 percent, conservative candidate Francois Fillon 20.01 percent and far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon 19.58 percent.

Socialist Benoit Hamon won 6.36 percent and nationalist Nicolas Dupont-Aignan 4.70 percent.

Among the smaller parties, Jean Lasalle won 1.21 percent, Philippe Poutou 1.09 percent, Francois Asselineau 0.92 percent, Nathalie Arthaud 0.64 percent and Jacques Cheminade 0.18 percent.

Emmaneul Macron was swiftly endorsed by the defeated republican and socialist candidates, Francois Fillon and Benoit Hamon.  Former Prime Minister Manuel Valls also endorsed the leader of En Marche!

European leaders also congratulated the centrist Macron after winning the first round of the French presidential election.

The European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker  has broken protocol to wish Emmanuel Macron well in the second round of the French presidential election.

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, described Macron as a “patriot and European” who he felt confident would beat Le Pen. “France must remain European,” he said.

Spain’s foreign minister, Alfonso Dastis, said he hoped a victory for Macron in the second round would mark a break in the rise of extremist populist parties in Europe.

Alexa Stewart

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