Macron secures 2.5 percent lead over Le Pen in 1st round of French elections

PARIS. KAZINFORM As the last ballots were scrutinized on Monday following the first round of voting in the 2017 French presidential elections, a centrist independent candidate looked to have secured a 2.5 percent advantage over his far-right rival, Kazinform has learned from EFE .

With 97 percent of votes scrutinized, data provided by the Interior Ministry said Emmanuel Macron, who was running under his self-founded En Marche! (On the Move!) platform secured around 23.86 percent of the vote, 2.5 percent more than National Front (FN) runner Marine Le Pen, who took 21.43 percent.

Macron and Le Pen were set to return to the Elysée Palace campaign trail ahead of the second round of voting, slated for May 7.
Clinching a narrow third place with 19,94 percent of the vote was center-right Les Republicains candidate, Francois Fillon, who put his failure down to the fake job scandal that engulfed him and his family earlier in the year.

Fillon urged French voters to back Macron going into the second vote.
On Fillon's heels was far-left France Insoumise (Unbowed France) candidate Jean-Luc Mélonchon with 19.62 percent of the vote. He was yet to offer voting instructions to his followers.

Coming in fifth was the incumbent Socialist Party (PS) candidate Benoît Hamon who secured 6.36 percent according to the latest figures_ the lowest first round taking in his party's history.

It was the first time in about five decades that neither of France's traditional parties _ the PS or Les Republicains _ would be represented in the second round of voting.

Recent polls have suggested that Macron could take as much as 60 percent of the vote in that round, which, at the age of 39, would make him the youngest person ever to hold the office of President of France.

On the other hand, a victory for Le Pen would see France elect its first female president.
Markets and the euro reacted positively to Macron's successful first election hurdle.

On Sunday, the euro rose to its highest value against the dollar in five months, to $1.09, although it settled back down to $1.08 on Monday.

Macron, unlike his rivals Mélenchon and Le Pen, is widely seen as pro-European Union.

A victory for him, market analysts have said, could protect and strengthen the euro.

Le Pen has signaled that she would scrap the currency in favor of bringing back the French Franc.