Berliner Boersenzeitung - Le Pen, Macron prepare for tense French election duel

EUR -
AED 4.31522
AFN 80.888304
ALL 97.498912
AMD 450.961785
ANG 2.102609
AOA 1077.328333
ARS 1495.545148
AUD 1.785198
AWG 2.117061
AZN 2.01233
BAM 1.954767
BBD 2.370958
BDT 143.554169
BGN 1.957153
BHD 0.442943
BIF 3499.980968
BMD 1.174839
BND 1.500327
BOB 8.114713
BRL 6.487701
BSD 1.174285
BTN 101.427422
BWP 15.69371
BYN 3.842986
BYR 23026.852341
BZD 2.358764
CAD 1.603762
CDF 3394.111322
CHF 0.934818
CLF 0.028458
CLP 1116.391284
CNY 8.404793
CNH 8.41366
COP 4786.013775
CRC 592.794432
CUC 1.174839
CUP 31.133244
CVE 110.205847
CZK 24.537655
DJF 208.90054
DKK 7.464419
DOP 71.253271
DZD 152.08381
EGP 57.644553
ERN 17.622591
ETB 161.96881
FJD 2.631934
FKP 0.865827
GBP 0.870473
GEL 3.184019
GGP 0.865827
GHS 12.271518
GIP 0.865827
GMD 84.588684
GNF 10187.705182
GTQ 9.012239
GYD 245.680222
HKD 9.220692
HNL 30.74915
HRK 7.538825
HTG 154.101221
HUF 396.878334
IDR 19177.138578
ILS 3.932645
IMP 0.865827
INR 101.657096
IQD 1538.287418
IRR 49475.420674
ISK 142.202486
JEP 0.865827
JMD 188.013085
JOD 0.833
JPY 172.597416
KES 151.718302
KGS 102.566655
KHR 4705.594432
KMF 491.662342
KPW 1057.367409
KRW 1618.012605
KWD 0.358479
KYD 0.978579
KZT 637.390593
LAK 25313.628379
LBP 105215.868765
LKR 354.42278
LRD 235.44663
LSL 20.700553
LTL 3.468995
LVL 0.710649
LYD 6.337679
MAD 10.546829
MDL 19.745738
MGA 5177.331239
MKD 61.527499
MMK 2465.79507
MNT 4218.199965
MOP 9.494685
MRU 46.701927
MUR 53.349419
MVR 18.060731
MWK 2036.250373
MXN 21.785975
MYR 4.956058
MZN 75.142686
NAD 20.699977
NGN 1795.00214
NIO 43.217539
NOK 11.889198
NPR 162.286346
NZD 1.949217
OMR 0.451744
PAB 1.17428
PEN 4.175694
PGK 4.938433
PHP 66.915914
PKR 333.642257
PLN 4.256298
PYG 8795.391372
QAR 4.293396
RON 5.071081
RSD 117.17847
RUB 93.40684
RWF 1697.425028
SAR 4.407443
SBD 9.733656
SCR 17.248342
SDG 705.492335
SEK 11.200132
SGD 1.503048
SHP 0.923239
SLE 26.96278
SLL 24635.799543
SOS 671.15404
SRD 42.987959
STD 24316.803695
STN 24.487273
SVC 10.274529
SYP 15275.247183
SZL 20.683074
THB 37.993557
TJS 11.155755
TMT 4.123686
TND 3.422792
TOP 2.751589
TRY 47.64496
TTD 7.98075
TWD 34.583165
TZS 3019.337536
UAH 49.06211
UGX 4213.774124
USD 1.174839
UYU 46.965391
UZS 14987.083253
VES 141.301934
VND 30709.714631
VUV 140.754337
WST 3.229407
XAF 655.619048
XAG 0.030088
XAU 0.00035
XCD 3.175062
XCG 2.116382
XDR 0.81538
XOF 655.61347
XPF 119.331742
YER 283.07773
ZAR 20.724642
ZMK 10574.962677
ZMW 27.388649
ZWL 378.297809
  • RBGPF

    7.0000

    75

    +9.33%

  • CMSD

    -0.0400

    22.85

    -0.18%

  • CMSC

    0.0000

    22.43

    0%

  • SCS

    -0.1700

    10.51

    -1.62%

  • BTI

    0.2500

    52.62

    +0.48%

  • NGG

    -0.4200

    72.23

    -0.58%

  • GSK

    0.2000

    38.23

    +0.52%

  • SCU

    0.0000

    12.72

    0%

  • BCC

    -1.9200

    86.43

    -2.22%

  • BP

    -0.5800

    32.13

    -1.81%

  • RIO

    -0.7900

    63.83

    -1.24%

  • RELX

    0.6200

    53.71

    +1.15%

  • JRI

    -0.0600

    13.15

    -0.46%

  • BCE

    -0.1700

    24.43

    -0.7%

  • RYCEF

    -0.2600

    13.24

    -1.96%

  • AZN

    0.6800

    73.68

    +0.92%

  • VOD

    0.2200

    11.52

    +1.91%

Le Pen, Macron prepare for tense French election duel
Le Pen, Macron prepare for tense French election duel

Le Pen, Macron prepare for tense French election duel

French President Emmanuel Macron and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen were on Monday preparing for two weeks of tough campaigning after they reached a run-off of presidential elections that promises to be far tighter than their encounter five years ago.

Text size:

With more than 90 percent of the vote counted in the first round, projections showed Macron scoring 28-29 percent, with Le Pen on 22-24 percent.

As the top two finishers, they will progress to a second round on April 24.

Despite entering the campaign late and holding just one rally, Macron performed slightly better than expected and won immediate support from most of his defeated rivals ahead of the run-off.

"Make no mistake: nothing is decided," he told cheering supporters at his campaign headquarters. "The debate that we are going to have over the next fortnight will be decisive for our country and Europe."

He added: "When the far-right with all its forms is so high in our country, you can't say that things are going well."

Far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon came close to qualifying for the second round after a late surge gave him a projected score of around 21 percent.

The candidates for France's traditional parties of government -- the Socialists and the Republicans -- were meanwhile on course for humiliating defeats and historic low scores.

Final results are expected Monday, while four new polls on Sunday night suggested a tight second round between Macron and Le Pen.

One by the Ifop-Fiducial group suggested Macron had a razor-thin winning margin of 51 versus 49 percent, but the average of them indicated a Macron victory by around 53 percent to 47 percent.

Macron announced Sunday night that he would be out campaigning on Monday in northern France, while Le Pen is set to meet her campaign team before resuming her months-long grassroots efforts in small towns and rural France later in the week.

- 'Fundamental choice' -

Bidding to be France's first woman president, Le Pen increased her first-round score from 2017 and she will pick up votes cast for her far-right rival Eric Zemmour in the second round.

Zemmour, an anti-Islam newcomer who failed in his bid to outflank Le Pen with a more radical programme, was projected to win around 7.0 percent.

Le Pen, 53, said the run-off would present "a fundamental choice between two visions" with Macron representing "division, injustice and disorder... to the benefit of a few" against her plan for "social justice and protection" guaranteed by the nation state.

It would be a "choice of society and even of civilisation", she said.

The election campaign has been overshadowed by the war in Ukraine, while surging prices of everyday goods have made the cost of living the overwhelming priority issue for voters.

The outcome of the two-stage election will have major implications for the European Union, which Le Pen says she wants to radically reform.

She has also said she wants to pull out of the joint military command of the US-led NATO military alliance.

Macron said Sunday: "I want a France that places itself in a strong Europe, that continues to form alliances with the world's democracies to defend itself.

"Not a France which, once out of Europe, would only have the international alliance of populists and xenophobes as allies. That's not us."

- Pivotal debate -

A pivotal moment in the next stage of the campaign will come on April 20 when the two candidates are set to take part in a TV debate broadcast live on national television and watched by millions.

The final debate often has a crucial impact on the overall outcome, including in 2017 when Macron was widely seen as bettering a flustered Le Pen.

While her opponents accuse her of being divisive and racist, Le Pen has sought to project a more moderate image in this campaign and has focused on voters' daily worries over inflation.

But Macron is expected to target her past proximity with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, her policies on the EU, as well as the cost of her economic programme that includes massive tax cuts.

He also floated the idea Sunday night of a "large movement of political unity and action" and a "new method" of governing, which could see him invite rival parties to formally join his political movement.

Among the other candidates, Sunday's vote spelled humiliation for Socialist Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, who was projected to win 1.8-2.0 percent, a historic low for the party which held the presidency just five years ago.

The vote for the right-wing Republicans party, headed by nominee Valerie Pecresse, also collapsed to an estimated 4.3-5 percent, down from 20 percent in 2017.

"The traditional parties have been smashed," said Jerome Jaffre, a political scientist at Sciences Po university in Paris.

Greens candidate Yannick Jadot was also left disappointed with a projected score of under 5.0 percent.

- Tax cuts -

This marks the third time that a far-right candidate has made the run-off vote of a French presidential election, after Marine Le Pen's campaign in 2017 and the breakthrough by her father Jean-Marie in 2002 that shocked France.

Macron, who came to power aged 39 as France's youngest president, is bidding to be the first French president to win a second term since Jacques Chirac in 2002.

He would also seek to consolidate his position as the most influential leader in Europe after the departure of German chancellor Angela Merkel.

burs-adp-sjw/lb

(K.Lüdke--BBZ)