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French press review 24 April 2017

This morning, if you want to avoid wall-to-wall presidential analysis, pontification, prediction and prognostication, you'd be well advised to turn to the sports pages of the French newspapers.

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The editorial in business daily Les Echos says the outcome of the French presidential election's first round is further proof of the extent to which France is divided.

And the leader article goes on to say that, even if the young centrist Emmanuel Macron is clear favourite to win outright in two weeks' time, the hardest part is still to come: he now has to find the means of putting his plans for reform into action and that with all the disadvantages which attend a president who is unlikely to have a parliamentary majority following the elections in June.

Too early to shout 'victory' for centrist reformer

La Tribune warns that the outcome of the second round is anything but a foregone conclusion, especially if it degenerates into a clash of the pro- and anti-European camps.

And the same financial paper says that last night's result shows the clear determination of French voters to clear the presidential landscape of the debris left by three decades of mainstream left-right dominance. French politics changed last night, we are assured.

Few survivors as French politics suffers second earthquake

Conservative paper Le Figaro considers the outcome a "new earthquake" in French politics, since no candidate from the mainstream Socialists or Republicans has survived into the decisive second round. The first earthquake was, of course, that triggered by the National Front's Jean-Marie Le Pen's famous defeat of Socialist Lionel Jospin in the first round in 2002.

This time Le Figaro is also struck by the huge improvement in the performance of Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the hard left.

The right-wing daily says the combined results constitute the biggest shock in French politics since 1958, the year which saw the birth of the current, Fifth Republic.

Le Figaro says the Socialists will have a hard time recovering from the crushing defeat of their man, Benoît Hamon, and suggests that the party will now face a period of internal struggle which will be murderous.

But the right-wing paper is also clear about the implications of the defeat for the mainstream conservative Republicans.

Three months ago François Fillon was heading into an election which he simply couldn't lose.

His refusal to withdraw following a crippling series of scandals was directly responsible for last night's defeat.

Fillon said as much in his concession speech last night. For Le Figaro, the crucial question now is whether the Republicans can remain united in the run-up to the parliamentary elections in June, or are they going to go down in a bloody succession battle with hostilities breaking out this very week.

The advice the various conservative luminaries give to their voters for the second round will be the first indication of how deep the divisions are.

Emmanuel Macron just one step from victory

Left-leaning Libération gives the front-page honours to Emmanuel Macron, saying that he's now just one step from the presidency.

In fact, he may be a lot closer than that since, as Libé points out, virtually all the defeated candidates and the big names in the various parties have called for a vote in favour of Macron in the second round. An opinion poll carried out last night as the results were being announced confirmed earlier poll suggestions that Macron will win about 60 percent of second round support, solidly defeating Marine Le Pen.

The National Front leader remains confident that she can mobilise a sufficient number of those who abstained yesterday - about 23 percent of voters stayed away - while also attracting supporters of the now-defeated Fillon and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan.

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