Conservatives and Socialists rally behind centrist Macron

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Conservatives and Socialists rally behind centrist Macron
French presidential election candidate for the far-right Front National (FN - National Front) party Marine Le Pen leaves a polling booth to vote at a polling station in Henin-Beaumont, north-western France, on April 23, 2017

Harris gave both Fillon and far-left contender Jean-Luc Melenchon 20 per cent, which will mean their elimination from the race.

By Agencies

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Published: Sun 23 Apr 2017, 11:18 PM

Last updated: Mon 24 Apr 2017, 1:28 AM

Senior French conservatives and Socialist presidential candidate Benoit Hamon said on Sunday that they would back centrist Emmanuel Macron in a May 7 runoff against far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
After initial projections indicated Macron and Le Pen had qualified for the second round, Socialist candidate Benoit Hamon told supporters his party had suffered an 'historic blow' from its voter base and called on voters to back Macron and reject Le Pen in 'the strongest possible way'.
On the other side of the traditional political spectrum, former prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, a member of defeated candidate Francois Fillon's The Republicans party, said: "Without hesitation, as far as I'm concerned we've got to rally behind Emmanuel Macron."
Meanwhile, projections said Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen are set to face each other in a May 7 runoff for the French presidency after coming first and second in Sunday's first round of voting, early projections indicated.
In a race that was too close to call up to the last minute, Macron, a pro-European Union ex-banker and economy minister who founded his own party only a year ago, was projected to get 24 per cent by the pollster Harris and 23.7 per cent by Elabe.
Le Pen, leader of the anti-immigration and anti-EU National Front, was given 22 per cent by both institutes. Three further pollsters all projected broadly similar results.
Though Macron, 39, is a comparative political novice who has never held elected office, opinion polls in the run-up to the ballot have consistently seen him winning the final clash against the 48-year-old Le Pen easily.
Defeated Socalist candidate Benoit Hamon urged voters to rally behind Macron in the second round, as did senior conservative lawmaker Francois Baroin from the camp of defeated right-wing candidate Francois Fillon.
Harris gave both Fillon and far-left contender Jean-Luc Melenchon 20 per cent, which will mean their elimination from the race.
Fillon had consistently been polling third in surveys leading up to the election. French senator and key Fillon supporter Roger Karoutchi told reporters: "The first indications are not good."
The result, if confirmed, will mean a face-off between politicians with radically contrasting economic visions for a country whose economy lags that of its neighbours and where a quarter of young people are unemployed.
That in turn reduces the prospect of an anti-establishment shock on the scale of Britain's vote last June to quit the EU and the election of Donald Trump as US president.
Early indications from Reuters data showed the euro currency jumping to a four-week high around $1.09 in response to the early projections, from $1.0726.
Macron favours gradual deregulation measures that will be welcomed by global financial markets, while Le Pen wants to ditch the euro currency and possibly pull out of the EU.
Whatever the outcome on May 7, it will mean a redrawing of France's political landscape, which has been dominated for 60 years by mainstream groupings from the centre-left and centre-right, both of whose candidates faded. Macron ally Gerard Collomb said the defeat of the mainstream centre-left Socialists and the centre-right Republicans showed a "deep malaise" in French society.
The final outcome on May 7 will influence France's standing in Europe and the world as a nuclear-armed, veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council and founding member of the organisation that transformed itself into the European Union. French centrist Emmanuel Macron on Sunday welcomed projections showing him reaching the runoff of the country's presidential election together with far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.
"The French have expressed their desire for change," Macron told AFP in a statement, adding:
"We're clearly turning a page in French political history."
Defeated Socialist candidate Benoit Hamon said the left had suffered a "historic drubbing" in the first round of France's presidential election. While vowing that the "left is not dead", Hamon, who came in fifth according to projections, urged his supporters to vote for Macron. - Agencies
Some key moments of French polls

1.  Francois Fillon pulls off a come-from-behind victory in the right-wing primary, defying pollsters who had for months predicted a win for Alain Juppe, 71.

2. There was much suspence as to whether President Francois Hollande will stand for re-election despite disastrous approval ratings. He finally ducks out on December 1.

3. In mid-January, the race for the presidency seemed to be a duel between Fillon and anti-immigration far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

4. On January 25, the Le Canard Enchaine dropps a bombshell on Fillon and "Penelopegate" was born.

5. By early February, the 39-year-old Macron begins polling better than Fillon as a candidate of "neither the left nor the right".

6. In the final weeks, polls have shown the gap closing between Macron and Le Pen and the chasing duo of Fillon and Melenchon, making the race highly unpredictable.

7. Just as candidates were making their final pitches on Thursday evening, 39-year-old Karim Cheurfi shot dead a policeman on Paris's iconic Champs Elysees before he himself was shot dead by police. The killing forced security to the top of the agenda.


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