Macron and Le Pen head for runoff

Monday, 24/04/2017 23:11
Centrist Emmunuel Macron and far-Right leader Marine Le Pen will face one another in the final round of the French presidential election on May 7th, according to exit polls.
Mr. Emmunuel Macron (Source: AFP/VNA)

The figures show Macron with 23.75 percent of votes and Le Pen with 21.53 percent, followed by conservative Francois Fillon at 19.91 percent and far-leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon on 19.64 percent.

"The French have expressed their desire for change. We’re clearly turning a page in French political history,” Macron said of the early results in a statement to Agence France-Presse.

Le Pen also reacted triumphantly to the result.

“The great debate will finally take place. The French must seize this historic opportunity,” she tweeted.

Emmanuel Macron, born in 1977, is a French politician, senior civil servant, and former investment banker. A member of the Socialist Party from 2006 to 2009, Macron was appointed deputy secretary-general under Francois Hollande's first government in 2012. He was appointed Minister of Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs in 2014. Macron resigned in August 2016 to launch a bid in the 2017 presidential election.

Marion Le Pen, born in August 1968, is a French lawyer and politician. She is the president of the National Front (FN), a political party in France. 

Le Pen joined the National Front in 1986 and was elected as a regional councillor (1998–present), a Member of European Parliament (2004–present), and a municipal councillor in Henin-Beaumont (2008–2011). She won the leadership of the National Front in 2011 with 67.65% (11,546 votes) of the vote, defeating Bruno Gollnisch and succeeding her father, who had been president of the party since he founded it in 1972. In 2012, she placed third in the presidential election with 17.90% of the vote, behind Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy./. 

Compiled by BTA

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