Race tightens in France for runoff vote

First-round result leaves Macron with battle to keep presidency from Le Pen

French President Emmanuel Macron will face off with far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in a runoff of the presidential election on April 24 following Sunday's first round of voting, but the race will be tighter than many had expected.

Macron won 27.6 percent of the votes while Le Pen obtained 23.4 percent in the first round on Sunday that featured 12 candidates, according to the French Interior Ministry.

Far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon came in third with 22 percent. But according to the rules, only the top two candidates go to the runoff.

"The fortnight to come is decisive for our country and for Europe," Macron told his cheering supporters after winning the first round. "Make no mistake, nothing is decided."

New polls released late on Sunday predicted a close race in the second round in favor of Macron. The Ifop-Fiducial group said that Macron would receive 51 percent of the vote to Le Pen's 49 percent while the Elabe group indicated that Macron would secure 52 percent to Le Pen's 48 percent.

About 48.7 million French voters are registered for the election.

Le Pen promised on Sunday to be "a president for all French people" and called on voters to join her to "put France back in order".

Melenchon is now regarded as a kingmaker by many. After the first round, he told his supports that "I know your anger. But I repeat: We must not give a single voice to Mrs Le Pen!" But he also did not tell them to vote for Macron.

Macron started his reelection campaign only two weeks ago, much later than Le Pen and other candidates believing he would have an easy win. His presidency since 2017 has been marred by the massive Yellow Vest movement starting in late 2018 when people voiced their grievances about hardships in their daily lives, especially with rising living costs.

Le Pen, who lost to Macron in the 2017 runoff, has campaigned hard by focusing on daily life issues such as inflation and incomes. She has softened her views on a number of issues in a bid to attract more conservative voters. She has also pushed to cut value-added tax on basic foodstuffs and bring forward the retirement age to attract some left-wing voters.

A final debate on April 20 before the second-round vote will provide the two candidates an opportunity to convince nearly half of the French voters who didn't vote for them in the first round.

Both sides will rev up their campaigns in the coming two weeks. Macron was expected to take his campaign to win extra votes to the industrial heartlands of northern France on Monday.

The close race is likely to cause huge concern in Washington and Brussels because of Le Pen's views on NATO and the European Union that differ from Macron's, especially during the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

While Le Pen has condemned the Russian special military operation, she is known for having close relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Le Pen earlier stated her desire to pull France out of NATO's integrated command structure "so as to be no longer caught up in conflicts that are not ours". France is the only nuclear power and the only permanent member of the United Nations Security Council among the EU's 27 members.

While Le Pen's party, the National Rally, is no longer talking about leaving the EU, the Schengen visa-free zone and the euro, she has been widely viewed as a Euroskeptic.

The presidential election happens to fall during France's presidency of the Council of the European Union, a rotating position that the country occupies for the first six months of this year.

Agencies contributed to this story.