François Fillon

It is often said that in their president the French like to elect a king. But for one to be able to rule he also needs a parliamentary majority, a wish French voters have consistently granted in the Fifth Republic.

At the time when this article was being written, we knew that most opinion polls were giving the frontrunner centrist Emmanuel Macron a 20-point lead over his opponent Marine Le Pen. We were perhaps puzzled by the announcement of the hard-leftist leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon and center-right candidate François Fillon - both defeated in the first presidential round on 23 April - that they would not

Far right candidate Marine Le Pen announced Monday that she is temporarily standing down as the leader of National Front in order to beef up her national appeal against the independent, centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron.

Yet, while conventional wisdom is that Macron will now beat Le Pen, potentially by a huge landslide, the race could be tighter than some expect.

Centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen have won the most votes in Sunday's presidential elections in France.

They have qualified for the runoff on May 7.

According to the final results announced by the French Interior Ministry, Macron won 23.75 percent in the first round, followed by Le Pen with 21.53 percent.

Marine Le Pen stormed into the final straight of the French presidential election last night as mutinous voters humiliated the country's two established parties, writes The Times.

France began voting on April 23 under heavy security in the first round of the most unpredictable presidential election in decades, with the outcome seen as vital for the future of the beleaguered European Union.

Europe and the rest of the word are on the edge of their seats as nearly 47 million French voters are going to the voting booths to choose their candidate in the first round of the French Presidential elections on Sunday, April 23. Voting has already began after the conclusion of an acrimonious campaign between the four major candidates.

Here's how the French presidential election is going to work. This Sunday's vote will pick the leading two candidates, who will then have another two weeks to campaign for the run-off vote. But the leading four candidates are now bunched together so closely in the polls that any two of them could make it through to the second round. Including a couple of quite worrisome people.

More than half of police officers in France have said they are voting for far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in Sunday’s election because of her strong anti-terror stance.

According to the IFOP poll, 51 per cent of the Gendarmerie are planning to back Le Pen in the nail-biting election.

A known terror suspect shot dead a French policeman and wounded two others on April 20 on Paris's Champs Elysees in an attack claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group days before a presidential election.