Emmanuel Macron projected to win French presidential election

We are ending our live coverage of the 2022 French Presidential election. Emmanuel Macron is projected to beat his far-right rival Marine Le Pen by 58.8% to 41.2%. In doing so, he has become the first French president to win a second term in 20 years.

Though results are not final, Le Pen has already conceded victory, but told her supporters that the “game is not over,” pointing to legislative elections next month.

Macron, whose lead over Le Pen shrunk from 2017, urged his supported not to boo his rival, saying “I am the President for each and every one of you.”

You can follow the live results as they come in on our interactive graphic below and read the full report here.

Emmanuel?Macron?gestures as he arrives to deliver a speech at his victory rally at the Champs de Mars in Paris on April 24.

Emmanuel Macron has delivered a toned-down speech to his supporters in Paris, thanking them for their backing and telling those who voted for Marine Le Pen that he understood their “anger,” and said “I am the President for each and every one of you.”

The re-elected French President had to intervene as the crowd booed his opponent, saying that he would address “the anger that brought you to vote for her project.”

The celebration was significantly lower-key than after Macron’s victory in 2017, though he did once again walk to deliver his speech to the European anthem, commonly referred to as the “Ode to Joy.”

Macron said during his speech that his second term would not be a continuation of his first, committing to address all of France’s current problems.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has tweeted his congratulations to Emmanuel Macron on his victory.

“Félicitations,?congratulations, dear president @EmmanuelMacron.?Your voters have also sent a strong commitment to Europe today. I am happy that we will continue our good cooperation!”

The Franco-German relationship drives much of the European Union’s agenda and the two leaders will have to work closely in the coming years on a range of issues, from the Ukraine crisis to Europe’s economic recovery.

Macron had a close relationship with former Chancellor Angela Merkel, whom he managed to convince to back much of his European agenda.

Europe’s leaders are congratulating Emmanuel Macron on his reelection.

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, in her good wishes, said that a strong EU needs a strong France, while Charles Michel, President of the European Council, wished him a “warm bravo.”

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he looked “forward to continuing to work together on the issues which matter most to our two countries and to the world.”

A supporter of French President Emmanuel Macron holds a placard reading "Emmanuel Macron With You" and others wave flags as they watch the first election projections being announced in Paris, France, Sunday, April 24.

President Emmanuel Macron is projected to win re-election with 58.5% of the vote, according to updated analysis of early results from Ipsos & Sopra Steria for France Télévisions and Radio France.??

Marine Le Pen is projected to take 41.5% of the vote, according to the pollsters.

France's leftist movement La France Insoumise party leader and former candidate for the 2022 presidential election Jean-Luc Melenchon casts his vote during the second round of France's presidential election at a polling station in Marseille, southern France, on April 24.

French far-left politician and presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon slammed Emmanuel Macron’s re-election, but portrayed the electoral defeat of far-right politician Marine Le Pen as “good news” for France on Sunday.

Melenchon narrowly missed out on the French presidential runoff to Le Pen two weeks ago.

“The ballot boxes have decided. Madame Le Pen is beaten. France has clearly refused to entrust its future to her and this is very good news for the unity of our people,” he told his supporters.

“Now, Mr. Macron is the most poorly elected of the presidents of the Fifth Republic [note: since 1958]. His presidential monarchy survives by default and under the constraint of a biased choice. It floats in an ocean of abstention, blank and invalid ballots,” he added.

There was a projected 28.2% abstention rate in Sunday’s runoff, according to pollster Ipsos & Steria, the highest for 20 years.

Supporters of French President Emmanuel Macron watch a screen in front of the Eiffel Tower as the first election projections are announced in Paris, France, Sunday, April 24.

As the sun sets on the French capital, Emmanuel Macron’s supporters are enjoying the victory of their candidate in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.

As DJs played dance music, it feels like the Champ de Mars has turned into a nightclub.

People burst into joyful cheers when the clock hit 8 p.m. local time, as Macron’s image emerged on the screen as the victor of this election.

In a sea of French and EU flags, supporters jumped up and down, chanting the catchphrase of Macron’s campaign: “One, two, and five more years.”

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen speaks after the early result projections of the French presidential election runoff were announced in Paris, Sunday, April 24.

Marine Le Pen has hinted that despite losing the presidential election to Emmanuel Macron, securing nearly 42% of French voters means her far-right movement has a solid base on which it can build for the future.

At her concession speech, Le Pen said that the “game is not quite over since in a few weeks the legislative elections will take place.”

She added: “Tonight we launch the great battle of the legislative elections… with all those who have the nation at heart… I will never give up on the French.”

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen speaks after the early result projections of the French presidential election runoff were announced in Paris, Sunday, April 24.

Marine Le Pen has conceded defeat in the second round of the French presidential election, even as she celebrated her “historic score” in the vote.?

“A great wind of freedom could have blown over our country, the fate of the ballot box wanted otherwise.”

?But Le Pen shrugged off disappointment at her National Rally party’s campaign event in western Paris, casting her loss as a victory for her movement and the “forgotten” French people who voted for her.?

“In this defeat, I can’t help but feel a form of hope. This result constitutes for our French leaders as for the European leaders the testimony of a great mistrust of the French people towards them which they cannot ignore and that of the widely shared aspiration of a great change,” she said.?

Her supporters appeared ebullient even in defeat, interrupting her speech with chants of “Marine, Marine, Marine.”

Le Pen pointed to legislative elections in two months, and urged those who voted for her to keep supporting the National Rally party.

She added: “I will not abandon the French! Vive la France,” she concluded.

National Rally candidate for upcoming 2nd round of French presidential election, Marine Le Pen holds her last meeting for the campaign for president on April 21, in Arras, France.

Emmanuel Macron will serve a second term as the president of France – the first person to do so since 2002 – pollsters have projected.?

His victory over right-wing rival Marine Le Pen by a relatively comfortable margin of 58.8% to 41.2% will be met with a huge sigh of relief in the capital cities of France’s most prominent allies – most notably in Brussels, home of the European Union and NATO.?

Le Pen could almost be purpose built as someone leaders of the Western alliance would least like running a country as important as France.?

France is a member of NATO, the EU and the G7. It has a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council and is a nuclear power. Yet despite its deep embedment in these pillars of the Western order, France also historically favors an autonomous foreign policy, meaning it can act as a broker between the US-led Western order and nations like Iran, China and Russia.?

Le Pen’s previous ties to Russia, unenthusiastic view of NATO and hostile view of the EU meant that her victory would have rattled cages around the world.?

However, if the projections are correct, the scale of Macron’s victory tonight will mean celebrations are cut short for many French allies. Far from Macron’s impressive 2017 victory, where he defeated Le Pen comfortably with 66% of the vote, that margin is now much smaller.?

For all that defeating the far-right for the second time is a great victory for Macron, France’s allies will be very awake to the fact that nearly 42% of French voters, according to the data, supported someone who stands against so much of what they are for.?

Nowhere will this be felt more acutely than among the leadership of NATO and the EU.?

For NATO, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been the first real test of the alliance’s unity in years. While eyebrows were raised at some of the decisions taken by Macron during the crisis, NATO has largely been on the same page.?

Based on Le Pen’s previous relationship with Putin and disdain for NATO, very few thought this wouldn’t create a problem not just in NATO, but also at the UN Security Council.?

When it comes to the EU, Macron has hardly been shy about his desire for Europe to become stronger and more united in terms of its security and foreign policy. His vision of European unity at times irritates many of his counterparts, who think he is trying to force through a French vision for Europe, though his commitment to the project cannot be questioned.?

Le Pen, on the other hand, is more dangerous than someone who wants France to leave the EU: she would be able to lead the group of Euroskeptics who want to take over the bloc from within.?

There are a significant number of these people already represented in the EU institutions. In the parliament, far-right parties are represented in a number of countries. Where things get messier is at the national level.?

There are EU member states, most notably Hungary and Poland, that are led by people whose view of the EU is very close to that of Le Pen. This was underscored last year when she joined numerous other right-wing leaders, including national leaders, in an open letter opposing many of the progressive ideas that have been proposed over the past decades by Brussels.?

For the traditional West, Macron’s second term is a moment of great relief, but also a moment of warning. If the far-right continues to make gains, there could be a very different outcome five years from now.

Emmanuel Macron addresses voters during a campaign event on April 16 in Marseille, France.

Emmanuel Macron will win France’s presidential election, pollsters project, fending off a historic challenge from right-wing candidate Marine Le Pen during Sunday’s runoff vote.

President Macron is expected to take?58.2%?of the vote to Le Pen’s?41.8%, according to an analysis of voting data by pollsters Ipsos & Sopra Steria conducted for broadcasters France Televisions and Radio France.

French pollsters typically release projections at 8 p.m. local time, when the polls close in major cities and several hours before the French Interior Ministry releases the official results.?

These projections, which are based on data from voting stations that close at 7 p.m. in the rest of the country, are usually used by the candidates and French media to declare a winner.

Several key issues have dominated the French presidential campaign this year.

The cost of living: The cost of living is among the top issues for the French electorate this year. Faced with the economic fallout from the pandemic, high energy prices and the war in Ukraine, voters are feeling the pinch, despite generous government support. Though inflation is a problem, unemployment remains historically low.

While financial pressures may be insufficient to whitewash some candidates’ extremism in voters’ minds, they may push some to look for unorthodox answers to their problems.

Macron promises to continue forging ahead with a globalized, free market-focused France. Le Pen wants to completely upend the status quo with protectionist economic policies.

Le Pen has also pushed for several measures to help people cope with rising prices, such as slashing sales taxes on fuel and removing income tax for people younger than 30. Le Pen’s camp, however, has not fully explained how they will pay for these, according to critics. Others say they may not all be constitutionally sound.?

Macron has proposed a swathe of tax cuts, including on income and real estate. But his call to increase the retirement age to 65 has been met with hostility by the French public on both the left and the right, and he appears to have softened his stance on the proposal while campaigning.

The war in Ukraine: Though the fighting is a long way from the bistros and cafes of France, the conflict is certainly on voters’ minds. Just shy of 90% of French people were worried about the war in the last week of March, according to pollster Ifop. Given Le Pen’s support for Putin before the war started, this has played in Macron’s favor so far.

Europe: Macron wants France at the head of a muscular European Union. Le Pen is a famous euroskeptic who, in the 2017 election, proposed a national referendum asking France if they wanted to leave the bloc and abandon the euro. Le Pen says she no longer wishes to exit the EU, but experts say many of her proposed policies would put France on a political collision course with Europe.

Islamic headscarves: Though Le Pen has softened her language around Islam, “eradicating Islamist ideologies” remains one of her two priorities in her campaign manifesto.

She wants to ban Muslim women from wearing headscarves in public – a member of her campaign team called the garb a totalitarian symbol akin to the swastika.

Macron, while campaigning, has highlighted the threat of Islamists and Muslim “separatists” in France, and his government has closed several mosques deemed radical by authority. However, he has no plans to ban headscarves in public.

The climate crisis: The environmental crisis did not feature as a major issue on the campaign trail. Although the importance of climate protections is gaining traction globally, it’s less of a concern in France, which sourced 75% of its electricity needs in 2020 from nuclear energy, according to the French environment ministry. Most candidates in the first round backed the kind of nuclear development Macron has already announced, so there is little divergence on this issue.

However, Macron and Le Pen have sparred over wind and solar power. Le Pen argues that the two are expensive and inefficient – she also says wind turbines have scarred the landscape of the traditional French countryside – so she wants to scrap subsidies for both. Macron wants to further invest in both technologies.

Journalist Camille Knight contributed to this post

Hiba Latreche took a last gulp of water and reached for a date, her eyes flitting between the plates of food before her and her phone screen as it blinked toward 5:42 a.m., the beginning of her fast.

This year, the month of Ramadan coincides with the presidential elections in France, the climax of a campaign that has been marked by anti-Muslim vitriol on a scale not seen for decades.

As France went to the polls?for the presidential runoff on Sunday, many French Muslims like Latreche were facing a difficult question: Do these would-be presidents really represent my interests?

Considering the candidates who entered the race, the answer for many is no.

Read more about what French Muslims think of the election here:

Iman praying

Related article A vitriolic election campaign marked by anti-Islam narratives has left many French Muslims feeling marginalized | CNN

Marine Le Pen holds a campaign event on April 21 in Arras, France.

Marine Le Pen is hardly the same candidate who lost to Emmanuel Macron in 2017 by nearly two votes to one.

In the weeks leading up to the first round of the election on April 10, Le Pen campaigned hard on pocketbook issues, often beginning interviews and media appearances by explaining to voters how she would help them cope with inflation and rising fuel prices, top issues for the French public.

The strategy appears to have worked. Le Pen polled far better in the 2022 first round than she did five years ago, and polls conducted before this weekend showed a close race.

Though Le Pen has sought to broaden her appeal, her economic nationalist stance, views on immigration, Euroskepticism and positions on Islam in France – she wants to make it illegal for Muslim women to wear headscarves in public – remain unchanged.

Read more:

French far-right party Rassemblement National (RN) presidential candidate Marine Le Pen addresses her supporters on Sunday.

Related article How Marine Le Pen has changed since losing the 2017 presidential election

A stage is seen in front of the Eiffel Tower ahead of Emmanuel Macron’s election night rally on April 24 in Paris.

In the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, supporters of Emmanuel Macron are gathering at Champs de Mars for the incumbent French President’s election night rally.

Hosting the rally at this scenic location in the French capital is a dream-come-true moment for Macron’s team. They tried to do it for his first election runoff in 2017 but the City of Paris rejected their request because it was preparing to welcome an inspection group from the International Olympic Committee in its bid to host the 2024 Olympics, a spokesperson from the city government told CNN.

French voters will decide whether Macron will speak as the first French president since 2002 to win a second term, or as the first mainstream candidate to be defeated by a far-right challenger.

People queue to vote at a polling station in Lyon, France, on Sunday, April 24.

Turnout in the?second?round of the French presidential election is low as of late-afternoon in France, according to official figures released Sunday afternoon.

At 5 p.m. local time (11 a.m. ET), voter turnout was at 63.23%, the lowest since 2002, according to data published by the French interior ministry.

Data shows 65.3% of French voters had cast their ballots by 11 a.m. ET in?the second round of the 2017 presidential elections, when Emmanuel Macron defeated Marine Le Pen to become France’s youngest ever president.

Polling stations in most of metropolitan France will close at 7 p.m. local time (1 p.m. ET), while those in major urban centers such as Paris, Marseille and Lyon will close at 8 p.m. (2 p.m. ET).

Today is the second time French voters have headed to the polls to choose their president this month. Twelve candidates stood in the initial contest on April 10, but since none won more than 50% of the vote, the top two – Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen – advanced to the runoff two weeks later.

Though Le Pen came in second, Jean-Luc Melenchon of the far left came a close third. No other candidate finished in double digits.

Data from each of France’s nearly 35,000 communes show Melenchon performed particularly well in places like Paris’ working-class suburbs, while Le Pen won the traditional right-leaning strongholds like the northeast and southeast. Macron performed well in cities and in the historically left-leaning west.

The strong performance of these three candidates underscores just how much French politics has changed since Macron won the presidency in 2017.

His centrist political party has siphoned votes from the traditional center-left and center-right parties, while candidates like Melenchon and Le Pen have successfully wooed voters who are frustrated and angry with mainstream politicians. Far-left and far-right candidates accounted for more than 57% of the ballots cast in the first round.

Other dissatisfied voters simply stayed home this time around. Turnout in round one was the lowest the country has seen in 20 years.

People vote in the second round of the French presidential election in Lyon, France, on Sunday, April 24.

To elect their new president, French voters head to the polls twice.

The first vote, on April 10, saw 12 candidates run against each other. They qualified for the race by securing endorsements from 500 mayors and/or local councillors from across the country.

Macron and Le Pen received the most votes but, since neither won more than 50%, they had to compete in Sunday’s runoff.

Another vote soon: This isn’t the only national vote France faces this year – parliamentary elections are also due to take place in June.

French presidential candidates Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen.

Emmanuel Macron?is an ex-investment banker and alumnus of some of France’s most elite schools. Though he previously served as economy minister, Macron was a political novice before becoming president. The 2022 presidential vote is only the second political election he has ever stood in.

But he is no longer an upstart and must run on a mixed record.

His ambitious plan to bolster the European Union’s autonomy and geopolitical heft won him respect abroad and at home, even though his attempts to?win over Donald Trump?or to prevent the?AUKUS submarine deal.

Though ultimately unsuccessful, he was one of Europe’s most active leaders in pursuing diplomatic efforts to avert war in Ukraine, speaking directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Macron’s domestic policies are more divisive and less popular. His handling of the yellow vest movement, one of France’s most prolonged protests in decades, was widely panned, and his record on the Covid-19 pandemic is inconclusive.

Macron’s signature policy during the crisis –?requiring people to show proof of vaccination?to go about their lives as normal – helped increase vaccination rates but fired up a vocal minority against his presidency.

Marine Le Pen?is?the most recognizable figure of the French far right. She is the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded the National Front, the predecessor to Le Pen’s current political party, National Rally.

The younger Le Pen has attempted to rebrand the party, as it has long been viewed as racist and anti-Semitic.

In 2017, Marine Le Pen campaigned as France’s answer to Trump: A right-leaning firebrand who vowed to protect France’s forgotten working class from immigrants, globalization and technology that was rendering their jobs obsolete.

Since then, she has abandoned some of her most controversial policy proposals, like leaving the European Union.

But by and large, her economic nationalist stance, views on immigration, skepticism of Europe and position on Islam in France – she wants to make it illegal for women to wear headscarves in public – have not changed. “Stopping uncontrolled immigration” and “eradicating Islamist ideologies” are her manifesto’s two priorities.

Le Pen has, however, attempted to soften her tone, especially around Islam and the EU in the wake of Brexit. Instead, she has campaigned hard on pocketbook issues, promising measures that she claims will?put 150 euros to 200 euros ($162 to $216)?in the coffers of each household, including a pledge to remove sales tax from 100 household goods.

The strategy appears to have worked.

Le Pen’s performance in the first round of the 2022 presidential election was her best result in the three times she has run.