Macron will face Le Pen in the French presidential election final round

Marine Le Pen has finished second in the first round of voting in the French presidential election and will go through to the second and final round of voting on 7th May to fight head to head with Emmanuel Macron.

With 96% of the votes counted Macron leads with 23.91% of the vote with Le Pen in second place with 21.42% of the vote. François Fillon is in third place with 19.94% of the vote and far left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon in fourth place with 19.54%.

Opinion polling suggested that it might be a run-off between Le Pen and Mélenchon but the far left vote failed to hold up.

Macron's lead has widened as the last results have been trickling in but it will come down to the wire in the main event next month. Le Pen is likely to pick up a big chunk of Mélechon's eurosceptic and working class vote whilst Macron can expect to hoover up Fillon's conservative vote. The odds are stacked against Le Pen but even if she loses on 7th May today's result will send shockwaves through the pro-EU, pro-mass immigration political class in France and across the EU.