On Sunday, voters in France will participate in the first round of their pivotal 2017 election to succeed retiring center-left Socialist President François Hollande. In the all but certain event that no candidate wins a majority, France will hold a May 7 runoff between the top two finishers.
Polling shows a tight four-way race, with centrist former-Socialist Emmanuel Macron and far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen typically vying for first and second, but with conservative Republicans candidate François Fillon and insurgent radical-leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon often close behind. While those same polls show Macron easily beating all comers and even Mélenchon defeating both Le Pen and scandal-plagued Fillon in a hypothetical runoff, the four candidates’ close levels of support and the large number of voters who aren’t firmly decided could still lead to an upset that produces a disastrous runoff combination.
Voting ends between 1 PM and 2 PM ET, and the Interior Ministry will publish official results here (in French). See Daily Kos Elections International’s recent preview for more in-depth background.