France presidential election: Macron and Le Pen in second round run-off

Emmanuel Macron will face a run-off against Marine Le Pen in France’s presidential election after both came out on top in Sunday’s first round.

Exit polls showed that centrist Macron came first with 28.1% of the vote while far-right Le Pen received 23.3%. Hard left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon came third with 20.1%.

Marine Le Pen came second with 23.3%

Macron is vying to become the first French president to be re-elected in 20 years but faces a strong challenge from Le Pen. The run-off is a repeat of that from 2017.

Turnout was down compared to the last presidential election in 2017

The traditional centre-left and centre-right parties crashed to their worst results. Socialist Party candidate Anne Hidalgo received 2.1%, while conservative candidate Valerie Pécresse clocked up just 5%.

Both have asked their followers to vote for Macron in the second round to keep Le Pen and her extremism out of the presidential office.

Communist Party candidate Fabien Roussel, who polled 2.7%, and the Greens' Yannick Jadot also asked their followers to vote for Macron in the second round to keep the far right out of power.

Polemicist Eric Zemmour, who positioned himself to the right of Le Pen received 7.2% of the vote.

The second round of the presidential election will take place in two weeks’ time.