Exit Polls: Establishment Favorite Emmanuel Macron Will Take On Nationalist Marine Le Pen in Round 2

PJ Media ^ | 04-23-2017 | Michael van der Galien

[Michael van der Galien]

Polls in France have closed. According to the exit polls, independent candidate Emmanuel Macron -- who's leading a "movement" rather than a party -- and Front National leader Marine Le Pen will proceed to the second round of the French presidential election.

That's exactly what was indicated in the poll of polls, which had Macron leading the field with 24 percent, followed by Le Pen with 22 percent. The exit polls show Macron with 23.7 percent and Le Pen with 21.7 percent. If those results prove true, the last polls were right on the money.

For Le Pen, today's result is an important victory. It was more or less expected, but she still needed to actually deliver. It's not the first time that the Front National has proceeded to the second round, but the last time this happened was back in 2002, when Jean-Marie Le Pen (Marine's father and founder of the party) didn't stand a chance -- and everyone, including Le Pen himself, knew it. Since taking over at Front National, Marine has truly improved her party. The results indicate French voters understand that and appreciate it.

Marine Le Pen has mainstreamed her party. It's the Front National's final breakthrough.

Meanwhile, the entire establishment has already turned against Le Pen. The leader of the Socialist Party, Benoit Hamon, and his number two have already endorsed Macron, saying that Le Pen will destroy France and warning voters that she and her allies are racist to the bone. It seems that the conservative Francois Fillon will soon do the same.

Head-to-head polls do indeed indicate that Macron will defeat Le Pen, but it's a completely different ballgame now. Front National has become a more or less mainstream party, and many conservative voters don't recognize themselves in Macron's blatant Europhile views...

[9YearLurker]

Yes, but my sense it the French voters are ready to get tough on immigration, but not to leave the EU.

The two come as package deals with the two options, however. And they’ll take the immigration hit at this point over leaving the EU.

[tbw2]

The bigger problem is a man whose response to Islamic terrorism is “oh, get used to it”.

[vigilence]

So which of the two candidates is the greater threat? I guess the French will have to decide between physical security and economic security.

[Krosan]

I don’t even know. In my opinion the right way would be for Europe to pay some civilized African country like Botswana to host the refugee camps. Then those picked up at sea or on land would be taken there. Information about this policy should be aggressively promoted among the possible immigrants.

They’d just stop coming as right now they believe they go to Sweden or Germany and get huge amounts of free money. They wouldn’t take the trip to end up in a Botswana camp unless their lives were really in danger.