Macron and Le Pen will advance to runoff in French presidential election, preliminary results suggest


French President Emmanuel Macron is projected to win the first round of the presidential election, but will fall far short of the 50 percent of the vote he would need to avoid a runoff, France Info reported Sunday.
According to projections compiled by consulting firms Ipsos and Sopra Steria, Macron received 28.1 percent of the vote with right-wing challenger Marine Le Pen in second place with 23.3 percent. The two will face each other in a runoff election on April 24.
Leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon finished third with 20.1 percent, while journalist Éric Zemmour, who ran to Le Pen's right, took fourth with 7.2 percent.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Almost three quarters of eligible voters cast ballots, down slightly from 2017.
Macron and Mélenchon slightly outperformed a poll conducted on Thursday and Friday, which showed their support at 26 and 17.5 percent, respectively. Le Pen underperformed slightly, having polled at 25 percent.
Early last month, Macron held a 61-31 lead over Le Pen, who he soundly defeated in 2017's runoff, but voters' concerns about rising costs of living wiped it out almost entirely in the weeks preceding the election. The two are polling dead even for the second round.
Center-right candidate Valérie Pécresse, who received just 5 percent of the vote, conceded defeat Sunday and said she would vote for Macron "to prevent the coming to power of Marine Le Pen."
According to an Ipsos poll conducted on Friday, 38 percent of Pécresse's supporters identified Macron as their second choice, while only 19 percent named Le Pen.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Grayson Quay was the weekend editor at TheWeek.com. His writing has also been published in National Review, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Modern Age, The American Conservative, The Spectator World, and other outlets. Grayson earned his M.A. from Georgetown University in 2019.
-
France and Indonesia promote a contentious bid for an Israel-Palestine two-state solution
Talking Points Both countries have said a two-state solution is the way to end the Middle East conflict
-
Film reviews: Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning, Lilo & Stitch, and Final Destination: Bloodlines
Feature Tom Cruise risks life and limb to entertain us, a young girl befriends a destructive alien, and death stalks a family that resets fate's toll.
-
Music reviews: Morgan Wallen and Kali Uchis
Feature "I'm the Problem" and "Sincerely"
-
Trump pauses all new foreign student visas
speed read The State Department has stopped scheduling interviews with those seeking student visas in preparation for scrutiny of applicants' social media
-
Trump pardons Virginia sheriff convicted of bribery
speed read Former sheriff Scott Jenkins was sentenced to 10 years in prison on federal bribery and fraud charges
-
Germany lifts Kyiv missile limits as Trump, Putin spar
speed read Russia's biggest drone and missile attacks of the war prompted Trump to post that Putin 'has gone absolutely CRAZY!'
-
Tied Supreme Court blocks church charter school
speed read The court upheld the Oklahoma Supreme Court's decision to bar overtly religious public charter schools
-
GOP megabill would limit judicial oversight of Trump
speed read The domestic policy bill Republicans pushed through the House would protect the Trump administration from the consequences of violating court orders
-
Judge scolds DOJ over Newark mayor arrest
speed read Ras Baraka was arrested during a May 9 surprise visit to a migrant detention facility
-
Trump lectures South Africa president on 'white genocide'
speed read Trump has cut off aid to South Africa over his demonstrably false genocide claims
-
Trump twists House GOP arms on megabill
speed read The bill will provide a $350 billion boost to military and anti-immigration spending and 'cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and green energy programs'