Leaders of Germany, Spain and Portugal have called on French voters to re-elect Macron. France’s upcoming Presidential election on Sunday 24 April could decide the future of the European Union, the course of the war in Ukraine, and potentially even the fate of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. The two candidates have strikingly different visions for the future of France and Europe.

Who do you think will be the next French president? Emmanuel Macron or Marine Le Pen? In the first round, Macron gained 27.85% to Le Pen’s 23.15%, meaning Macron performed better than in 2017 and actually increased his margin versus Le Pen. However, analysts caution that it’s still too early to discount a Le Pen victory.

During the television debate ahead of the second round vote, Macron highlighted the financial links between Le Pen and Russia, accusing the National Rally leader of being “dependent on Vladimir Putin” due to party loans taken from a bank with close ties to the Kremlin. Le Pen’s team, meanwhile, will be happy their candidate has largely managed to detoxify and present herself as a mainstream political candidate (Jacques Chirac refused a TV debate with Le Pen’s father in 2002).

We collected a set of citizen questions about the upcoming French vote. To get a response, we posed these questions in an interview with Veronika Wand-Danielsson, former Swedish Ambassador to France. Given the huge impact the vote could have on everyone in the European Union, we felt her perspective would be particularly valuable. Check out the video above to see how she responds.

Who will win the French elections? What should we expect? And how might the results affect the future of Europe? Let us know your thoughts and comments in the form below and we’ll take them to policymakers and experts for their reactions!

IMAGE CREDITS: BigStock (c) – Symeonidis Dimitris
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.



6 comments Post a commentcomment

What do YOU think?

  1. avatar
    Francesco

    exit polls are favorable to Macron (news from non-french source) but let’s wait until the votes count before blowing the trumpets, don’t ask me to remember what happened in all the latest elections with polls results…

  2. avatar
    Olivier

    Macron with 95%of the main stream media with him will win of course.. But the technic which points Marine le Pen as a fascist is less and less working. IF EU does not change its socialist liberal policy we shall have at the next election a government similar to Orban one.. And thanks God

  3. avatar
    Крис

    I hope that Le Pen will win. Macron is a humiliation to France.

  4. avatar
    JT HK

    Emmanuel Macron successfully re-elected and increased support for Le Pen means only growing populism in Europe. Growing populism does not necessarily means anti-America and support to Russia. It can reflect more popular discontent with the current EU submissive to NATO and US hyper dominance which have stripped European sovereign and independence as in Serbia and Hungary and the current difficulties causing by following US sanction against Russia and support for a corrupted Ukraine government. EU has been sacrificed hugely social and economic recovery to sustain a falling hegemon. As a popularly elected president, Macron needs to address discontents which have forced the voters to support populism. Marie le Pen is representing anti-NATO and anti-US hegemony. This is the reality of democracy, election campaign instead of the candidate.

    • avatar
      Benoît

      le rejet de l’UE est clair net et évidents
      Sauf pour les médias complètement inféoder à leur adulation hallucinatoire
      De l’UE
      Ces gens sont ceux qui nous ont détruit mentalement pour nous faire rentré dans leur ue
      Partout partout les meme paroles pro ue des médias sont une propagande insupportable une fois qu on en a pris conscience
      On se rend compte de la dictature de la pensée qu ils ont mis en place .
      Je pense que si réveil il y’a
      Le retour de bâton sera à la hauteur des decenies de mensonges , de destructions , de deni des aspirations réel des gens
      La réalité sera difficile pour les adulateurs béats dû mondialisme heureux
      Ceux qui n ont pas voulue voir leur congénères dans la merde préférant répéter que c’était de leur faute …
      Que se sont des assisté
      Que des fraudeurs sociaux
      Et puis un jour ils sont eux aussi toucher et se demande là pourquoi tout le monde ne ressens pas l injustice comme lui .
      Merde .
      Vivement que les petits rejettent toute les lois et normes qui nous ont été imposer et qui empêche toute vie privée réel et toute politique de bien commun .

    • avatar
      JT HK

      May be EU’s disorderly expansion and lack of external threat after the collapse of the Soviet Union has rendered member states vulnerable to external intervention. May be EU’s historical role might come to an end for it does not appear to be able to secure peace and prosperity for Europe anymore.

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