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Macron - Le Pen in second round: How did your area of France vote?
Far-right candidates made gains on their 2017, 2012 and 2007 results: 4,453 communes accorded more than 50% of their vote to a far-right candidate this year while only 1,135 did in 2017
President-candidate Emmanuel Macron will face a second round run-off against Marine Le Pen on April 24, after obtaining 27.6% and 23.41% respectively of the first round vote (with 97% of ballots counted) in this year’s presidential elections.
President Macron came out in front in 52 departments – performing most successfully in western France – far-right candidate Ms Le Pen won 42 and far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon won 12, most notably in overseas territories and Ile-de-France.
President Macron and Ms Le Pen were the two candidates who were predicted to win the first round according to pre-vote polls - and a tight second round is now forecast.
You can see how your area of France voted yesterday via this online government tool.
You need to choose your department and the results will be shown in a table. You can then click on the first letter of your commune and will be presented with a list to choose from.
For example, in the department of Charente you can see that 53,125 people voted for President Macron (La République en Marche), giving him 27.57% of the vote, while 50,430 people opted for Ms Le Pen (Rassemblement national), who gained 26.18% of the vote.
If you then choose Balzac commune, you can see that 34.24% of local voters came out in support of Mr Macron, while 22.34% voted for Ms Le Pen, 17.12% for Mr Mélenchon (La France Insoumise) and so on.
How did people vote in general?
In yesterday’s vote, far-right candidates made gains on their 2017, 2012 and 2007 results: 4,453 communes accorded more than 50% of their vote to a far-right candidate this time round, while only 1,135 did in 2017.
On a national level, the far-right candidates Ms Le Pen, Éric Zemmour and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan were most successful in northeastern and southeastern France, while they fared worst in Brittany, Ile-de-France and the centre of the country.
The extreme right and centre now appear to have squeezed out the right, whose share of the vote fell from 20% in 2017 to 4.79% yesterday.
In Ile-de-France, President Macron dominated, with 35.33% of the vote, followed by Mr Mélenchon with 30.09% and then Mr Zemmour with 8.16%. In the capital, Ms Le Pen only obtained 5.54% of the vote.
Mr Mélenchon proved popular in urban areas. He came in first in Lille (with 40.53% of the vote), Toulouse (with 36.95%), Montpellier (with 40.73%), Nantes (with 33.11%) Rennes (with 36.31%) and Marseille (with 31.12%). In all of these cities Mr Macron achieved the second highest number of votes.
Mr Macron, meanwhile, received the most support in cities including Lyon (with 31.84% of the vote), Bordeaux (with 33.51%) and Nice (with 25.13%).
In Toulon, Ms Le Pen came out on top, but only by a whisker, with Mr Macron’s 24.21% of the vote creeping up towards her 25.28%.
In general, departments fell to the same candidate as in 2017, but Marine Le Pen did make gains on Mr Macron and Mr Mélenchon in departments including Ain, Haute-Loire, Dordogne and Creuse, overtaking them to come in first.
Mr Macron, however, took departments such as Doubs, Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin, Loir-et-Cher, Loire and Drôme, which had been won by Ms Le Pen in 2017.
How did the other candidates do nationally?
Far-left candidate Mr Mélenchon was not far behind Ms Le Pen by the end of last night, with 21.95% of the vote.
After the top three candidates, there was a large gap before the fourth, Mr Zemmour (Reconquête !), who received 7.05%, and fifth, Valérie Pécresse (Les Républicains) who obtained 4.79% of the vote.
The remaining results were as follows:
- Yannick Jadot (Europe Écologie les Verts) - 4.58%
- Jean Lassalle (Résistons !) - 3.16%
- Fabien Roussel (Parti Communiste) - 2.31%
- Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (Debout la France) - 2.07%
- Anne Hidalgo (Parti Socialiste) - 1.74%
- Philippe Poutou (Nouveau Parti anticapitaliste) - 0.77%
- Nathalie Arthuad (Lutte Ouvrière) - 0.57%
The abstention rate was 25.14%.
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