The first round of the French presidential election has produced the same competition as five years ago. With 23% of the votes (against 21.3% in 2017), the far-right candidate, Marine Le Pen, qualified for a runoff election against the sitting president, Emmanuel Macron, who improved his first-round score from 24% in 2017 to 28%. The leader of the leftist “Unbowed” movement, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, surged to the third position, at 22%, just missing the qualification to the second round.
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