French Elections: THEN THERE WERE TWO

Far-right Le Pen, centrist Macron to meet in French presidential runoff election.

French politics was shaken to its core Sunday as far-right populist Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron advanced to a runoff presidential election after the first round of voting.

As it became clear that Le Pen would be one of the top two vote-getters, her rivals on the left and right urged voters to block her path to power in the May 7 runoff, saying her virulently nationalist anti-EU and anti-immigration politics would spell disaster for France.

“Extremism can only bring unhappiness and division to France,” defeated conservative candidate Francois Fillon said. “As such, there is no other choice than to vote against the extreme right.”

With 90 percent of votes counted, the Interior Ministry said Macron had nearly 24 percent, giving him a slight cushion over Le Pen’s 22 percent. Fillon, with just under 20 percent, was slightly ahead of the far-left’s Jean-Luc Melenchon, who had 19 percent.

The selection of Le Pen and Macron marked the first time in the 59-year history of the French Fifth Republic that neither of the country’s two main parties, the Socialists and the Republicans, made the second round of presidential balloting. Macron, a 39-year-old investment banker, made the runoff on the back of a grassroots campaign without the support of a major political party.

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