A new confrontation between Macron and Le Pen in the run-off on April 24

French President Emmanuel Macron and his rival, far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, qualified for a run-off on April 24, after they got the most votes in the first round, which was held on Sunday.
Immediately after the preliminary results of the French presidential elections appeared, on Sunday evening, the right, communists, socialists and the Greens announced their support for Emmanuel Macron, in the face of Marine Le Pen, who had the support of another far-right candidate, Eric Zemmour.
According to opinion polls, Macron received 28.6% of the vote in the presidential elections, while Le Pen received 24.4% of the vote.
Observers were expecting this scenario, the same as the scenario of the 2017 elections, which saw Macron and Le Pen meet in the second round, and ended with the victory of the current 44-year-old president.
Ifop polling organizers expected a sharp convergence in the result of the run-off, with Macron receiving 51 percent to Le Pen’s 49 percent, knowing that in 2017, Macron received 66.1 percent of the vote.
Macron said France and Europe were facing a decisive moment, adding that the French could count on him.
“I extend my hand to everyone who wants to work for France,” according to Archyde.com.
As for Le Pen, she said she is the one who can protect the weak and unite a nation fed up with its elite.
“We will win!” she told her supporters, who were chanting. In Paris, she added, the runoff “would be a choice of civilization.”
This outcome would set the stage for a confrontation between Macron, the economic liberal with a worldview, and a deeply Eurosceptic nationalist who, until the Ukraine war, had openly expressed her admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The winner of the Elysee will depend on voters who have voted for Macron and Le Pen’s rivals.
Conservative candidate Valerie Pecres, socialist Anne Hidalgo and Yannick Gadeau of the Green Party and Fabien Roussel of the Communist Party all said they would support Macron to tackle the far right.
“So that France does not fall into the hatred of all against all, I solemnly invite you to vote on April 24 against the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen,” Hidalgo said.
Pecres warned of “serious consequences” if Macron did not win the run-off.
“We will win! We will win!” She added that the run-off would “be the choice of civilization” and that its program would protect the weak and make France independent.