- Macron leads the poll, but Le Pen is close
- Voting starts at 06:00 GMT, exit polls at 18:00 GMT
PARIS, April 10 (Reuters) – In France, the first round of the presidential election took place on Sunday, with far-right candidate Marin Le Pen posing as an unexpected threat to President Emmanuel Macron’s hopes of re-election.
Polling stations opened at 8 am (06:00 GMT) and will close at 18:00 GMT, when the first exit polls will be announced. Such surveys are usually very reliable in France.
Until a few weeks ago, opinion polls showed an easy victory for the pro-European ally, the centrist Macron, who was stimulated by his active diplomacy towards Ukraine, strong economic recovery and the weakness of the fragmented opposition.
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But his late entry into the campaign, with just one big rally that even his supporters found unconvincing, and his focus on an unpopular plan to raise the retirement age, undermined the president’s rating, along with a sharp rise in inflation.
In contrast, the anti-immigration, Eurosceptic far-right Le Pen walked around France confidently, all smiling, her supporters chanting “We will win!” We will win!”.
She was stimulated by a month-long focus on the cost of living and a sharp drop in support for her far-right rival, Eric Zemor.
Opinion polls still show that Macron led in the first round and won the runoff against Le Pen on April 24, but several polls say that is within the margin of error.
In Pontaumur, a village in central France, 88-year-old Simone Astie said she voted for Macron, but without a verdict.
“I am never happy because there is always something wrong. When I was young, it was de Gaulle and for me no one has ever replaced him, “she said, referring to French post-war President Charles de Gaulle.
In the North, near Paris, 62-year-old Gnagne N’Dree said he voted for Jean-Luc Melenchon, attracted by plans by radical leftists to raise the minimum wage, reduce the retirement age and freeze petrol prices.
“His ideas are right for me, I’m a taxi driver,” he said. – With him I would be retired.
Melenchon ranked third in opinion polls, and his campaign called on left-wing voters in all ways to move on to their candidate and send him to the runoff.
In Paris, early voters included Anne Hidalgo, mayor of the capital and candidate for president of the Socialists, who lags far behind leaders in opinion polls.
RISKS OF MACRON OUTFLOW
Macron, 44, has also been in office since 2017, spending the last days of the campaign trying to emphasize that Le Pen’s program has not changed despite efforts to soften her image and that of her National Rally party.
Le Pen rejects accusations of racism and says her policy will benefit all French people, regardless of their background.
Assuming Macron and Le Pen run in the runoff, the president faces a problem: many left-wing voters told opinion polls that, unlike in 2017, they would not cast a ballot for Macron in the runoff just to prevent Le Pen. power.
Macron will have to persuade them to change their minds and vote for him in the second round.
Sunday’s vote will show who will be chosen by the unusually late number of undecided voters and whether 53-year-old Le Pen could exceed polls and come out on top in the first round.
Macron and Le Pen agree that the result is wide open.
“Anything is possible,” Le Pen told supporters on Thursday, while earlier in the week Macron warned his followers not to reject Le Pen’s victory.
“Look at what happened with Brexit and so many other elections: what seemed incredible actually happened,” he said.
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Additional reports by Juliet Jabhiro in Pontaumur, Mimosa Spencer in the North, Elizabeth Pino and Michelle Rose in Paris; Screenplay by Ingrid Melander and Gus Trompez; Edited by Francis Carey and Angus McSwon
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