President Fran\u00e7ois Hollande has called on French voters to reject far-right candidate Marine Le Pen and back Emmanuel Macron to succeed him.<\/p>\n
The pair will face each other in a run-off vote on 7 May after taking the top places in Sunday’s first round, with Mr Macron the current favourite to win.<\/p>\n
Mr Hollande said a far-right victory would endanger the country.<\/p>\n
He said: “What is at stake is France’s make-up, its unity, its membership of Europe and its place in the world.”<\/p>\n
His brief TV address on Monday reflected a move by much of France’s mainstream to line up behind Mr Macron to try to stave off Ms Le Pen.<\/p>\n
Earlier, defeated candidates, the Republicans’ Fran\u00e7ois Fillon and Socialist Beno\u00eet Hamon, both urged supporters to vote for Mr Macron.<\/p>\n
Ms Le Pen quickly renewed her attacks on Mr Macron on Monday, calling him a “weakling” for his anti-terrorism policies.<\/p>\n
The victory of Ms Le Pen and Mr Macron meant that, for the first time in six decades, neither of France’s main left-wing or right-wing parties had a candidate remaining in the election.<\/p>\n
The pair will hold a TV debate on 3 May, aides to Mr Macron said on Monday.<\/p>\n
President Hollande said the far-right would threaten the rupture of Europe, “profoundly divide France” and “faced with such a risk, I will vote for Emmanuel Macron”.<\/p>\n
He said his former economy minister would “defend the values which will bring French people together at such an important moment, a serious time for Europe, the world and France”.<\/p>\n
But the BBC’s Hugh Schofield in Paris says the support of Mr Hollande will be a mixed blessing for Mr Macron, as it will serve as a reminder to the French people that he was previously a close adviser and minister of the unpopular head of state.<\/p>\n
When he conceded defeat, the conservative Mr Fillon, who was third on Sunday with 19.9%, said there was “no other choice than voting against the far-right”.<\/p>\n
However, the position of the fourth-placed candidate, hard-left Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon, who took a creditable 19.6%, was still unclear.
\nHe pointedly refused to back Mr Macron, whose pro-EU, pro-business and pro-globalisation stance is diametrically opposed to his anti-austerity, eurosceptic approach.<\/p>\n
Steeve Briois, vice-president of Ms Le Pen’s National Front (FN), said it was hoping to win over Mr M\u00e9lenchon’s supporters, who he called “outside the system”.<\/p>\n
“The voters who voted for Mr M\u00e9lenchon are angry voters. They can be in agreement with us,” Mr Briois told the Associated Press.<\/p>\n
However, an IFOP poll on Monday of M\u00e9lenchon supporters suggested that 51% would vote for Mr Macron and only 19% for Ms Le Pen.<\/p>\n
Protesters who burned cars at the Place de la Bastille and Place de la Republique in Paris overnight were chanting “No Marine and No Macron!”<\/p>\n
The latest opinion poll, by Opinionway, suggested a second-round victory for Mr Macron by 61% to 39%.<\/p>\n
But there were warnings from Mr Macron’s own party following a glitzy victory celebration at a Paris bistro that the job was not yet done.<\/p>\n
“We need to be humble. The election hasn’t been won and we need to bring people together to win,” Richard Ferrand, secretary-general of Mr Macron’s En Marche movement, said.<\/p>\n
The National Front said that while Mr Macron’s supporters were recovering “from their showbiz evening”, Ms Le Pen was out canvassing in a market in a small northern town.<\/p>\n
She quickly attacked her rival: “Mr Macron is a weakling. Here we have a candidate who doesn’t have a programme to protect the French people from the threat posed by Islamist terrorism.”<\/p>\n
She added: “He is a hysterical, radical ‘Europeanist’. He is for total open borders. He says there is no such thing as French culture.”
\nWhat does Mr Macron stand for?<\/p>\n
At 39, Mr Macron could become the youngest president France has ever had – and the first president in the Fifth Republic who does not belong to a major party.<\/p>\n
He secured 8.4 million votes – more than any other candidate – in the first round.
\nMr Macron was Mr Hollande’s economy minister but quit to create En Marche.<\/p>\n
In a victory speech to supporters, Mr Macron said: “I hope that in a fortnight I will become your president. I want to become the president of all the people of France – the president of the patriots in the face of the threat from the nationalists.”<\/p>\n
What about Ms Le Pen?
\nMs Le Pen, 48, took over the FN leadership from her father in January 2011 and helped her party secure big gains in regional elections.<\/p>\n
She won 7.6 million votes on Sunday – the strongest ever result for a FN candidate, and 2.8 million more than her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, won for the FN in 2002.<\/p>\n
Following the first round results, Ms Le Pen made an “appeal to all patriots”, saying a vote for her was the key to the “survival of France”.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Fran\u00e7ois Hollande has called on French voters to reject far-right candidate Marine Le Pen and back Emmanuel Macron to succeed him. The pair will face each other in a run-off vote on 7 May after taking the top places in Sunday’s first round, with Mr Macron the current favourite to win. Mr Hollande said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[3758,6520,6521],"yoast_head":"\n