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French Election: Incumbent President begs voters to defend Macron in round two

France’s incumbent socialist President Francois Hollande is begging to French voters to back Emmanuel Macron in the second round of the election to be held on May 7th. In the first round of the election, Marine Le Pen became the second Front National candidate to reach the second round since her father became the first in 2002. She received 21.53 percent of the votes, while her opponent Emmanuel Macron received 23.9 percent of the votes. While most of the pollsters predicted a Macron victory in the second round, the marginal gap between the two candidates and the fact that both of them are far away from the 50 percent required to become President are wrecking nerves.

In a televised address, President Hollande said that the presence of a far-right candidate in the second round is a risk for the country. He added, "What is at stake is France's make-up, its unity, its membership of Europe and its place in the world." Mr. Hollande confirmed that he will be voting for Mr. Macron, his former economy minister as he is best placed to unite the French people. Mr. Macron has the support of the majority of the politicians who support the European ideals. Even before last Sunday’s election, the former Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls declared his support for Emmanuel Macron.

It is not clear that how much difference the incumbent President’s call to support Macron will make as his party’s candidate’s performance was worst since 1969.

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