Macron is projected winner of French presidential elections

France’s Emmanuel Macron looks set to comfortably beat his far-right rival Marine Le Pen in Sunday’s election, securing a second term as president on his pro-business and pro-EU agenda.

Macron of the La République En Marche party looks set to gain around 58% in the second and final round of voting, according to a flurry of exit polls and projections, with Marine Le Pen of the nationalist and far-right National Rally party on 42%.

Immediately after the projections, Le Pen spoke to her supporters in Paris and accepted defeat.  She said her result was a “victory” for her political movement and pointed to parliamentary elections which take place in June.

“The French showed this evening a desire for a strong counterweight against Emmanuel Macron, for an opposition that will continue to defend and protect them,” she said, according to a Reuters translation.

Despite the predicted victory for Macron, the margin represents a smaller gap between the two candidates in comparison with the 2017 election, when Macron won with 66.1% of the vote.

The 2022 campaign was set against the backdrop of a cost of living crisis in France, a surge in support for the far-left among younger generations and suggestions of widespread voter apathy.  Turnout on Sunday was 2 percentage points lower than the 2017 election, according to the Interior Ministry.

Marine Le Pen — who has now run for France’s presidency three times — chose to distance herself from her previous rhetoric on the European Union and Euro integration and instead concentrate on the economic struggles of French voters.