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WASHINGTON — U.S. officials are anxiously watching the French presidential election, aware that the outcome of the vote on Sunday could scramble President Joe Biden’s relations with Europe and reveal dangerous fissures in Western democracy. President Emmanuel Macron of France has been a crucial partner as Biden has rebuilt relations with Europe, promoted democracy and forged a coalition in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But Macron is in a tight contest with Marine Le Pen, a far-right challenger. Le Pen is a populist agitator who, in the style of former President Donald Trump, scorns European Union “globalists,” criticizes NATO...

In the candid pictures, the French president bears a resemblance to Bond actor Sean Connery and star Burt Reynolds - both known for their bountiful chest hair. Social media users also compared the French premier to fuzzy-chested Roger Federer. Mr Macron is running hoping to beat far-Right politician Marine Le Pen in the election. To do so, he will need to galvanise some support from the young who has surprisingly warmed to Marine Le Pen compared to her previous runs. With 12 candidates in the first round whittled down to two, now they must seek to appeal to the circa...

French voters in Sunday’s presidential election will use the same system that’s been used for generations. French voters in Sunday's presidential election will use the same system that's been used for generations: paper ballots that are cast in person and counted by hand. Despite periodic calls for more flexibility or modernization, France doesn’t do mail-in voting, early voting or use voting machines en masse like the United States ... PAPER BALLOTS.. Voters must be at least 18 years old. ... Voters make their choices in a booth, with the curtains closed, then place their ballot in an envelope that is...

France faces a brutal two-week campaign over the country’s future, as the centrist incumbent, Emmanuel Macron, faces the far-right Marine Le Pen for the presidency, positioning himself as a pro-European “progressive” against what he calls her anti-Muslim, nationalist programme and “complacency” about Vladimir Putin. Macron topped Sunday’s first round of the French presidential election with 27.6% of the vote, ahead of Le Pen’s 23.4%, according to initial projected results by Ipsos for France Télévisions. He scored higher than his result in the first round five years ago, and clearly gained support in the final hours of the campaign after his...

Could France be facing its Trump moment? For US commentators, France’s presidential runoff between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen has raised the prospect of a fresh shakeup in transatlantic alliances, which could test Western unity against Putin’s Russia as war rages in Ukraine. As of late Sunday evening, Washington, DC time, the outcome of France’s first round of presidential voting was all but certain: incumbent Emmanuel Macron will face the far-right's Marine Le Pen in a rematch of their 2017 run-off election. And this time around, the numbers suggest that Le Pen is well within reach of the Élysée...

Top candidates Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen both improved their vote shares on Sunday night over their previous 2017 performances, and the pair will face off again in 13 days’ time to decide who will be the next President of France. While Sunday’s first-round vote for the Presidential election saw the lowest turnout in 20 years with over 25 per cent of registered French deciding to stay at home, the leading candidates all increased their vote shares at the expense of minor parties. With 97 per cent of the vote counted per the French interior ministry, globalist-centralist, former...

Emmanuel Macron is said to want to face Marine Le Pen in the second round of this year's election because he can run against her as "racist" and "extreme" and "far-right" and draw the left into joining with his "centrist" voters. Marine Le Pen seems in a stronger position than she was five years ago when she lost the second round to Macron 66-34 percent. Le Pen focusing her message on economic issues as the economic threat has increased due to COVID and the sanctions imposed on Russia over Ukraine... Is Marine Le Pen on her way to "breaking the...

Emmanuel Macron has topped voting in this first round with 28.1 percent of the vote. Marine Le Pen is second with 23.3 percent. They are France's two finalists for the April 24 run-off.

Emmanuel Macron. Credit: Frederic Legrand COMEO / Shutterstock. Paris, France, May 10, 2017 / 04:44 pm (CNA).- Newly-elected President Emmanuel Macron, according to one of his biographers, embodies a new phenomenon in France known as “zombie Catholicism.”Once among the most Catholic countries in the world, sometimes called the “eldest daughter of the Church,” France has seen serious decline in churchgoing numbers in modern times. While more than 50 percent of people still identify as Catholic, only 5 percent regularly attend Mass. Still, in France’s recent presidential election, a latent Catholic identity in many of France’s citizens proved to be a...

Emmanuel Macron was elected president of France on Sunday with a business-friendly vision of European integration, defeating Marine Le Pen, a far-right nationalist who threatened to take France out of the European Union, early projections showed. The centrist's emphatic victory, which also smashed the dominance of France’s mainstream parties, will bring huge relief to European allies who had feared another populist upheaval to follow Britain's vote to quit the EU and Donald Trump's election as U.S. president. The 39-year-old former investment banker, who served for two years as economy minister but has never previously held elected office, will now become...

Emmanuel Macron has beaten Marine Le Pen in Sunday's French election and taken more than 60 per cent of the vote, according to several early exit polls. Polling conducted by Ipsos, Ifop and BVA all gave Mr Macron, the pro-business candidate, a strong lead over Front National leader Marine Le Pen.

French voters are choosing their next president after an unpredictable campaign that has divided the country. The second round contest pits centrist Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old former investment banker, against the far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen, 48. The latest figures show voter turnout is sharply down on the past two presidential elections.

BETTING markets are pricing in a 10-15 per cent chance that Marine Le Pen will pull off a shock election win, as France takes to the polls to vote in its next president. Centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron is seen as the favourite to secure victory in the French Election, yet more more people have put stakes backing his opponent, found Oddschecker, which measures a number of betting odds to create an average. Overall, there are a higher number of bets on Ms Le Pen coming out on top, than Brexit or Donald Trump - even though the odds are much...

Reports are emerging of torn – and therefore invalid – Le Pen ballot papers being received by voters ahead of tomorrow’s all important French presidential election. In each case, the ballots of rival candidate, Emmanuel Macron, are intact. David Rachline, Campaign Director for Marine Le Pen, last night called for vigilance on the part of voters receiving their election material, and for those concerned to notify authorities at polling stations of any damaged ballots. Millions of packs have been sent out to French households in recent days, containing voting information and ballot papers for Sunday’s election. According to a press...

If Marine Le Pen wins, it’s almost certainly the end of the EU, experts say — and that could bring economic and political turmoil unlike anything the West has seen in decades. Forget Britain’s vote for Brexit. Forget U.S. President Donald Trump’s November win. If Marine Le Pen somehow defeats Emmanuel Macron in France’s presidential runoff vote on Sunday, it may be the biggest electoral shock in the West so far this century. A win by the leader of the French far right would see a leading European nation select a president emphatically opposed to globalization and integration, friendly to...

Leading French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron's campaign said on Friday it had been the target of a "massive" computer hack that dumped its campaign emails online 1-1/2 days before voters choose between the centrist and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen.

FRENCH presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron has pulled ahead of right-wing firebrand Marine Le Pen after a furious war of words in the last TV debate ahead of Sunday’s vote, a snap poll has claimed. Ms Le Pen made the most of her final opportunity to trade blows with the En Marche! candidate by hitting out at the political establishment, slamming the crumbling EU bloc and branding her competitor a “darling of the system”. But her explosive performance did not do enough to push her ahead of Mr Macron according to a snap Elabe Poll for French TV channel BFMTV. Voters...

French Presidential hopeful Emmanuel Macron this week lashed out at Front National voters, branding them “anti-France” and “true enemies”.

Marine Le Pen, the French presidential candidate for the National Front (FN) party, speaks boldly of economic protectionism, stronger borders, leaving the Eurozone and returning to a national currency. Characterized by popular media outlets as the “non-winnable” candidate, or worse, a fascist, Le Pen continues forward towards the run-off on May 7 between herself and pro-EU centrist, Emmanuel Macron. Yet her vision for a better France began much earlier. In December 2015, following the National Front party’s failure to win any of the 13 French regions, Marine Le Pen, as leader of the party, used the opportunity to paint a...

Documents leaked online today appear to show that French Presidential Candidate Emmanuel Macron entered into an operating agreement for a Limited Liability Company (LLC) in the Caribbean island of Nevis, and that the company may have had a business relationship with a bank which has been previously involved in tax evasion cases in the Cayman Islands. Macron claimed he was not concealing assets or holding secret offshore accounts less than a month ago.