Macron, Le Pen prepare for tense battle in French presidential run-off

French President Emmanuel Macron and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen were on Monday preparing for two weeks of tough campaigning after they reached the run-off second round of a presidential election that promises to be far tighter than their encounter five years ago.

Le Pen and Macron will face off in the second round of the French presidential race. © AFP

With more than 90 percent of the vote counted in the first round, projections showed Macron scoring 28-29 percent, with Le Pen on 22-24 percent.

As the top two finishers, they will progress to a second round on 24 April.

Despite entering the campaign late and holding just one rally, Macron performed slightly better than expected and won immediate support from most of his defeated rivals ahead of the run-off.

"Make no mistake: nothing is decided," he told cheering supporters at his campaign headquarters. "The debate that we are going to have over the next fortnight will be decisive for our country and for Europe."

He added: "When the far-right in its various forms does so strongly in our country, you can't say that things are going well."

Far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon came close to qualifying for the second round after a late surge gave him a projected score of around 21 percent.

The candidates for France's traditional parties of government -- the Socialists and the Republicans -- were on course for humiliating defeats and historic low scores.

Final results are expected on Monday.

Tight second round predicted

Opinion polls carried out on Sunday night suggested a tight second round between Macron and Le Pen   

One survey by the Ifop-Fiducial group suggested Macron had a razor-thin winning margin of 51 versus 49 percent, but the average of four polls indicated a Macron victory by around 53 percent to 47 percent.

The out-going president announced on Sunday night that he would be out campaigning on Monday in northern France. Le Pen is set to meet her campaign team before resuming her months-long grassroots efforts in small towns across rural France later in the week.

Bidding to become France's first woman president, Le Pen increased her first-round score from 2017 and she is expected to pick up votes cast for her far-right rival Eric Zemmour in the second round.

Zemmour, an anti-Islam newcomer who failed in his bid to outflank Le Pen with a more radical programme, was projected to win around 7.0 percent.

Le Pen said the run-off would present "a fundamental choice between two visions" with Macron representing "division, injustice and disorder," while her plan is for "social justice and protection" guaranteed by the nation state.

It would be a "choice of society and even of civilisation", she said.

The election campaign was overshadowed by the war in Ukraine. Increased prices for fuel and many everyday goods have made the cost of living the overwhelming priority issue for voters.

Major implications for Europe

The outcome of the two-stage election will have major implications for the European Union, which Le Pen says she wants to radically reform.

She has also said she wants to pull out of the joint military command of the US-led NATO military alliance.

Macron said Sunday: "I want a France that places itself in a strong Europe, that continues to form alliances with the world's democracies to defend itself.

"Not a France which, once out of Europe, would have only the international alliance of populists and xenophobes as allies. That's not us."

The two candidates are set to take part in a live TV debate on 20 April.

Traditional parties smashed  

Among the other candidates, Sunday's vote spelled humiliation for Socialist Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, who was projected to win 1.8-2.0 percent, a historic low for the party which held the presidency just five years ago.

The vote for the right-wing Republicans party, headed by nominee Valérie Pécresse, also collapsed to an estimated 4.3-5 percent, down from 20 percent in 2017.

"The traditional parties have been smashed," said Jerome Jaffre, a political scientist at Sciences Po university in Paris.

Greens candidate Yannick Jadot was also left disappointed with a projected score of under 5.0 percent.