The final results have yet to be determined, but projections have the Trump-endorsed far right Marine LePen neck-and-neck with centrist Emmanuel Macron in the French presidential race, resulting in a run-off between the two on May 7.
TF1 television projected that centrist Macron and far-right leader Le Pen would win 23 percent of the vote each, with conservative former Prime Minister François Fillon and far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon on 19 percent each.
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Senior figures from both of France’s traditional major parties, the Socialists and the conservative Les Républicains, called on their supporters to unite behind Macron to ensure Le Pen’s National Front was defeated.Socialist presidential candidate Benoît Hamon, who came a distant fifth on between six and seven percent of the vote, immediately called on his supporters to back Macron in the second round runoff on May 7.
“I call for a fight against the National Front and call for a vote for Emanuel Macron,” Hamon said.
François Baroin, a conservative former finance minister, told TF1: “The project of Madame Le Pen means chaos for France. I will vote for sure for Emmanuel Macron. We need to oppose the National Front."
Wow. would that would have seen the right and left come together like that to resist Trump in November, eh?
There was some fear that the recent shooting at the Champs De Elysees might have stirred up enough anti-terrorist sentiment to launch LePen's candidacy, but on Fareed Zakaria GPS, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy foretold that it wouldn't.
