{"id":313426,"date":"2017-04-24T06:57:36","date_gmt":"2017-04-24T06:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=313426"},"modified":"2017-04-24T06:57:36","modified_gmt":"2017-04-24T06:57:36","slug":"french-election-emmanuel-macron-and-marine-le-pen-to-fight-for-presidency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=313426","title":{"rendered":"French election: Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen to fight for presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Centrist Emmanuel Macron has gone through to the second round of the French election, where he will face far-right leader Marine Le Pen.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Macron, a former banker, is seen as a political outsider, having never run an election campaign before.<\/p>\n<p>After topping Sunday&#8217;s vote, he is now favourite to win the run-off on 7 May.<\/p>\n<p>It is the first time in six decades that neither of France&#8217;s main left-wing or right-wing parties has had a candidate in the second round.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body__crosshead\"><strong>How tight is the race?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mr Macron won 23.8% of votes in the first round, while Ms Le Pen took 21.5%.<\/p>\n<p>Their nearest challengers, centre-right Fran\u00e7ois Fillon and hard-left Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon, fell behind, with just over 19% each.<\/p>\n<p>But several political rivals are now expected to unite behind Mr Macron in the run-off vote, in a bid to keep Ms Le Pen&#8217;s Front National (FN) from power.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body__crosshead\"><strong>What does Mr Macron stand for?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At 39, Mr Macron could become the youngest president France has ever had &#8211; and would be the first president in the Fifth Republic without the backing of an established party.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Macron was current President Francois Hollande&#8217;s economy minister but quit to create his own party, En Marche, which pushes a liberal, pro-EU agenda.<\/p>\n<p>His campaign promises include:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">A \u20ac50bn (\u00a343bn; $53bn) public investment plan to cover job-training, exit from coal and shift to renewable energy, infrastructure and modernisation<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Big cut in corporation tax and more leeway for companies to renegotiate 35-hour week<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Cut in jobless rate to 7% (now 9.7%)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Ban on mobile phone use in schools for under-15s and a \u20ac500 culture pass for 18 year olds<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In a victory speech to supporters, Mr Macron borrowed language favoured by his rival to describe himself as the patriotic choice for France.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I hope that in a fortnight I will become your president. I want to become the president of all the people of France &#8211; the president of the patriots in the face of the threat from the nationalists,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body__crosshead\"><strong>What about Ms Le Pen?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ms Le Pen took over the FN leadership from her father in January 2011 and helped her party secure big gains in regional elections.<\/p>\n<p>Her party wants to slash immigration, clamp down on free trade, and overturn France&#8217;s relationship with Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Her campaign has called for:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Negotiation with Brussels on a new EU, followed by a referendum<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">&#8220;Automatic&#8221; expulsion of illegal immigrants and legal immigration cut to 10,000 per year following an immediate total moratorium<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">&#8220;Extremist&#8221; mosques closed and priority to French nationals in social housing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Retirement age fixed at 60 and 35-hour week assured<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Following the first round results, Ms Le Pen made an &#8220;appeal to all patriots&#8221;, saying a vote for her was the key to the &#8220;survival of France&#8221;.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/7B6B\/production\/_95759513_lepen3.jpg\" alt=\"Le Pen supporters celebrated in her northern stronghold\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/>Le Pen supporters celebrating her win<\/span><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;Wherever they come from, whatever their origin, whatever they voted for in the first round, I invite them all to join us and to abandon ancient quarrels and to concentrate on what is essential for our country,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body__crosshead\"><strong>Who is likely to win?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Correspondents say the next head of state is almost certain to be Mr Macron, as most other parties are now backing him.<\/p>\n<p>Benoit Hamon, the candidate of President Hollande&#8217;s Socialist Party who failed to make an impact in the first round, urged those who voted for him to support Mr Macron in the next stage.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Fillon has done the same.<\/p>\n<p>But Mr Macron may struggle to secure a majority in the national assembly, as he does not have the backing of an established political party.<\/p>\n<p>This means he would have to negotiate to have his policies approved through parliament &#8211; which could be challenging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body__crosshead\"><strong>What do the results mean for the EU?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Many European leaders have been congratulating Mr Macron on the first round results &#8211; as they are keen to strengthen the union after Brexit.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Macron addressed the nation in front of an EU flag as the results came in &#8211; something noticed by both pro and anti-EU politicians.<\/p>\n<p>German Chancellor Angela Merkel&#8217;s spokesman, Steffan Seibert, tweeted: &#8220;It&#8217;s good that Emmanuel Macron was successful with his course for a strong EU and social market economy. All the best for the next two weeks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker also congratulated him, as did EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The result is the hope and future of our generation,&#8221; she tweeted.<\/p>\n<p>Anti-EU politicians, on the other hand, have congratulated Ms Le Pen for making the second round.<\/p>\n<p>Dutch MP Geert Wilders, who leads the anti-immigration Freedom Party, said the results were a &#8220;bright day for patriots in France and elsewhere who want more national sovereignty and less EU and immigration&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Centrist Emmanuel Macron has gone through to the second round of the French election, where he will face far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Mr Macron, a former banker, is seen as a political outsider, having never run an election campaign before. After topping Sunday&#8217;s vote, he is now favourite to win the run-off on 7 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[6498,4575,6499],"class_list":["post-313426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-french-election","tag-marine-le-pen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=313426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313426\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=313426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=313426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=313426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}