First Round

have been on the steep streets to ensure security. We now have a

special programme, France Decides, with Christian Fraser in Paris.

Hello and a very warm welcome to our special results programme from

Paris. It's a lovely evening here in the French capital, the

Champs-Elysees behind us looking resplendent in the evening sunshine.

A fascinating night in prospect, with regards to the election

campaign. 11 candidates on the ballot paper today, two will go

through to the final round, the second round of voting a week on

Sunday. We will talk about those candidates in a second but let's

focus on the French people. This election taking place in the context

of those awful events on the Chantilly sake Thursday, in which a

policeman was killed. Security has been stepped up today. The Interior

Ministry put 50,000 extra security personnel at the polling stations up

and down the country. It seems to have done the trick. Some healthy

cues up and down the country. The turnout rate which has been

predicted so far somewhere near where it was in 2012. Yet again, in

the face of terrorism, the French people showing themselves to be

hugely resilient. Which is a good thing because we can focus on the

election, the candidates, the policies that matter to the French

people. Not since 1958, in the founding of the fifth Republic, have

we seen something like what we are witnessing here tonight. Politics in

France has been dominated by the two party system but it could well be

this evening that the main two parties are eliminated in the first

round. We see. Let's talk about the focus candidates we need to focus

on. Emmanuel Macron, 39. He would be the youngest president of modern

times. Formerly the economy minister in the Socialist party but spirit

and a year ago started own party, En Marche! . He was at the top of the

polls on Friday evening. We will show you that in a second. There he

is voting earlier today. The other person we are focusing on,

of course, Marine le Pen of the Front National, the far right party,

who has been voting today. It is a little like the rust belt of France

where she was voting, a bit like the northern states for Donald Trump

that did so well for him in the election. She gets a lot of support

up there, a regional councillor there. She was just behind Emmanuel

Macron in the polls on Friday evening at the end of the campaign.

Running her close, quite extraordinary, because Francois

Fillon has been dogged by allegations throughout the campaign.

He has hung on. For recent days and weeks he has shown himself to be

quite resilient in the polls. Here he is voting in Paris today, the

former Prime Minister still in with a very good shout indeed. He will

run Marine le Pen close. So the far left candidate also, Jean-Luc

Melenchon. Quite an extraordinary campaign, Hayley has been around for

a long time. Aligned with the Communist Party. Run his campaign, I

think last week he was in Dijon. Campaigning in six cities through

his hologram. He has connected with young people through social media

and got himself into a prominent position in the polls. Really, the

sorry story, you would have to say, off the campaign has been the

socialist candidate, Benoit Hamon, who has never taken. Suffering under

the legacy of Francois Hollande, many people perceive in France not

to have done a good job over the last five years. Whether that is

fair or not. He was in single digits in the polls on Friday. He really

would be considered to be the outsider in this race. It

followed by Marine le Pen, and also we have Francois Fillon and Jean-Luc

Melenchon. Back with us for another election is Dominique, a very good

friend of the BBC, French political scientist Amorsino councillor of the

think tank in Paris. A warm welcome to you, thank you for being with us.

Have you seen an election as unpredictable as this before? Never,

no. And the global director of one of the main polling agencies here in

France. You are going to help us through the first projections we

will see this evening. Tell me a bit about those projections, where do

they come from, how are they gathered? What is important to say,

we're not polling people at all. This is ballot counting. We have

built a big sample of polling stations, and that's why it's a bit

more difficult today, because we have one hour less to do so,

considering the polling stations are closing later. So we are here to

assist to the counting of the ballot, and then we consolidate the

result until the moment. It will be an evolving picture through the

evening. Absolutely. There is also a possibility, we need to say this,

that we will fine tune the result throughout the night. OK. It will be

so close, because as I was saying, we have not seen an election like

this probably in the entirety of the fifth Republic. No, this time it's

different, this time it's different because the big classical figures of

French politics that were Nicolas Sarkozy, Francois Hollande... The

former Prime Minister, are not present. They were simply eliminated

or chose not to run, because their unpopularity was too high, in the

case of Francois Hollande. This time it's different because the two

classical parties may simply not be present on the second round. This

time it's different because you have someone that seems to be coming from

nowhere, very young, very attractive, Emmanuel Macron, who is

trying to do what has never been achieved. In other words, to win an

election by saying I am neither right nor left, I select from the

left programme what I think is good for France, and I select from the

programme of the right what is good for France. We are looking to see if

the trend we have seen in Britain with Brexit and in the United States

with Donald Trump, if it follows in the third biggest economy here in

Europe. Strictly speaking a manual macron is not an outsider? He is the

incarnation of the French elite. National School of administration,

banker... But he's also a complete outsider in the sense that he is so

new in politics. He's never run for office. I don't think it would be

possible in another country. He's a romantic, literary figure. His wife

says it's difficult to live with someone who takes himself for Joan

of Arc. But physically -- Bernard part.

When people look at the polls they will be, -- will be amazed Francois

Fillon is still hanging around. Would it be possible anywhere else?

How has he hung on? I think we are doing lots of core research, as

well. In that research you cannot change people from the right, some

of them. So they told us, OK, first the others are doing the same, but

also he is probably the only one, even if it is by default, is the

only one. They are focused on his programme. So I think yes, by the

way, has dropped a lot from the beginning. Because he was the

fancied candidate. In a really good position right now. We will see

tonight, but I think it's complicated for him. A respected of

the result, there will be millions of people in France who have voted

for far right and far left. What does that say about the French

system at the moment? Well, it says a lot about the French mood. It says

a lot about populist at large. In fact, you can read the French

election in comparing them with the Brexit result in Great Britain or

with the election of Donald Trump in the United States. From that

standpoint you have three keywords: anger, anger at the elite, rejection

of them a fear of the future and of the other and a strong element of

nostalgia for a France that no longer exists. That was much less

diverse. You were telling me that for all the policies that have been

discussed in this campaign. You still believe Europe with the

central core issue? Absolutely. First it was a bit like the elephant

in the room. It became more and more explicit afterwards. We have a usual

dividing lines between right and left, of course, between also

liberalism and elitism, but there is a third one, which was a much more

important one for selection, which are openness, Europe, globalism,

versus closure and sovereignty and nationalism. I think it really made

the difference, because every subject was related, were related to

that. Immigration, security, even taxation and environment, everything

was related to Europe. I think this is pretty new. And of course all

eyes in Europe will be on this election. You have two Eurosceptic

candidates in the top four, Jean-Luc Melenchon and Marine le Pen. There

are lessons in this not just for France but those in Brussels as

well. Very much so. In fact, the French today are voting for Europe

or against Europe. They are voting for democracy against democracy.

This is the first time you could say this is the year of France, in

electoral terms. This is not only the most uncertain election in the

history of the fifth Republic, but it is the most important one, coming

interpretations. Never two without interpretations. Never two without

three may mean Brexit, Trump and Marine le Pen or numbered two

without three can mean Austria, the Netherlands and no France, a beacon

of hope in the fight against populism. I'm bound to ask you, for

our British viewers who are watching, which of these candidates

would be better for Brexit and which would be worse for Brexit? It

depends which Brexit you mean! Chappell there is the debate itself.

When we see Theresa May, I'm not sure what she will go for, you

know... Emmanuel Macron threatening to take jobs! But probably, maybe

Dominique will complete my answer, but probably the negotiations will

be harder for the UK with Emmanuel Macron than it would be with Marine

le Pen, of course. I will get your thoughts on that in a second. Our

worldview is going to go away for a break.

You are watching BBC News. OK. We focused a bit of voters in

France today. Good queueing up and down the country, and lots in

London. A big constituency in London. I believe they were waiting

over an hour and a half in London where they were voting. Important

constituency. Hugh Schofield has been out and about today testing the

mood, and he has been to the seven are spot in France where many people

have been voting today. Let's take a look.

You join me in the 17th zone of Paris where the school has been

turned into a polling station. I'm not allowed to go and film inside

the polling station but I have been inside personally and I can tell you

that are long, long queues of people in that. It is very busy indeed,

suggesting that the terrorist attack not far from here three days ago now

has not had any impact on people's willingness to turn out and vote.

Across the country they are saying at lunchtime is 28%, 29%, which is

pretty good, and broadly in line with past presidential elections

when turnout does tend to be very high indeed. We go down here and we

will see in a moment the long line of election posters for all 11

candidates. 11 candidates overall, but only four have got any serious

chance of getting through to the second round. Marine le Pen,

Francois Fillon, Emmanuel Macron and Jean-Luc Melenchon. One of the key

factors in this election, I think, is going to be to see how much

tactical voting goes on. Because there will be some people, but how

many we don't know, who are tempted to vote for Marine le Pen but will

in fact vote for Francois Fillon, in order to keep out Emmanuel Macron.

At the other end of the spectrum there will be people who want to

vote for Jean-Luc Melenchon but will say no, we will vote for Emmanuel

Macron in order to prevent Marine le Pen and Francois Fillon going

through. It's an points out that this election will hinge.

We have our correspondence out and about at all of the headquarters of

the main candidates this evening. Let's go around the country and

visit some of them. First in the Calais region. What kind of day have

you had there, catty Adler? I can tell you it's pretty full

linear but pretty full outside as well. A lot of the party faithful

queueing and shouting their support for Marine le Pen outside the gate.

Here there is a lot of tension, as there is across France today. Marine

le Pen has spoken in her campaign in the name of the people. She has

talked about revolution and tried to do something revolutionary, by

having her party outside Paris, away from those she calls the elite. And

in northern France where she made her political name. The problem for

her and her supporters, along with her being at the top of the polls,

three others have been as well. It has been too close to call. There is

a lot of nail-biting going on in the room tonight. No body is quite sure.

Polls will be closing very soon now and we will get an idea if she is in

or out of the second round. What is it about their that mean she does

well? Is it deindustrialisation, employment, poverty, a combination

of all those things? It is all of that. If you look at the history of

the National front, it's known as the far right racist party. It was

the party of Marine le Pen's father. When she took it over, she tried to

make the party more attractive to mainstream voters. She was inspired

to do that here. She was a local councillor here. She saw for herself

the damage that was done in areas of France where big industrial towns

were suddenly shut down and became depressed economically. Youth

unemployment here runs at 30%. People feel forgotten and hidden

away. That is why she has chosen to put her election party here, to say,

I haven't forgotten you. She's very strong in her campaign, not only

anti immigration but pro-welfare state. Helping France's poorer

families, writes for the workers. She says France for the French and

all of the friend, not just the rich but the poorer as well. That rings

very true here. She is very loved. This is absolutely a National front

stronghold, but the same cannot be said for the whole of the French

Republic, of course. I remember in 2012 when she took over the party

from her father. It is a different party to the one that her father ran

until that point. Some would say the DNA of the party is still very much

the same, but do you think in the eyes of some voters she's managed to

change the image of the National front? Absolutely. When you ask the

party faithful, and I'm talking about the more mainstream party

faithful, young university students who are strong followers of the

National Front, we've spoken to. They say, we are not racist, because

if you have an identity card, whoever you are, Christian, Jewish

or Muslim, whatever the colour of your skin, you are French. If you

are French your party should be Front National. That's how they

fear. They decried a racist image the party still has. If you scratch

underneath the surface, of course, there is the extremist element still

there but there is more mainstream element as well this is it enough

for Marine le Pen to get through to the second round? People here will

be dreadfully disappointed if she doesn't. There was much talk in the

last few weeks she could either make it to that top position, to

President itself. If she doesn't get through to the second round there

will be a lot of glum faces and a very depressed environment in here,

that's for sure. I can well imagine. Good to hear

from you. We will hear from you again later. Now we can go to

Emmanuel Macron's camp. I would imagine James, a great sense of

anticipation there? There is. There is a reasonably

buoyant mood here. Every time a French TV switches to a shot here,

lots of young people in the audience waving their flags. They are

essentially a few minutes away from finding out whether or not this

campaign was based on something more than promises and vagueness. Whether

it will be promised and based on real actual votes. There is a

significant hope here that Emmanuel Macron will move forward to the

second round. What is it, do you think, about

Emmanuel Macron that has captured the imagination of the French

people? He's given a fresh look at things.

The irony, the paradox of his campaign is he really is an insider.

He went to prestigious universities, he worked as an investment banker,

worked and served as the economy minister, but he's reinvented

himself as an antiestablishment outsider. I think that's what's

captured the imagination of some French people. In some ways this is

almost a throwback campaign to Europe 20 years ago, when

centre-left candidate following Clinton and Tony Blair used to run

campaigns like this. That has caught the attention of some young people,

some educated people and some people in France's cities, as well.

OK, thank you. We will come back to you when we get that first

projection. Interesting what James was then, that the campaign that

Emmanuel Macron has run, if you had to put your finger on it, it's quite

difficult, it's a little bit vague, isn't it? Yes, but by the end of the

day they will vote for the person, not for the programme. The

anticipation of what the person can do, and a mood. In the 2017 campaign

there was one candidate of hope, one candidate that projected optimism.

Will he win? We will know. We will see. MNU Earle, it is probably the

right guy at the right place at the right moment. As the landscape is

really polarised, the centre, the moderate camp, you can represent

that. I think this is true for him and also... With the Francois Fillon

allegations as well, everything is aligned for him. There is no real

enthusiasm against Emmanuel Macron. He is also a candidate by default.

This is probably the worst common denominator in a way. I think this

is why he could be about to gather lots of people around him. But

afterwards, there will be other elections. Yes. Has he also

benefited from the fact he's managed to break away from Francois Hollande

and the Socialist party? I sort of remember when I was here we used to

joke about the Socialist party, the Prime Minister and Francois Hollande

really wanted a social Democrat party and they were held by the hard

left of their party. Is Emmanuel Macron really where Francois

have liked to be, could have been, have liked to be, could have been,

in a way, if he had not been prisoner of the false promises he

made during the 2012 campaign. He should have immediately said, I'm

sorry, I didn't realise the state of the economy, we have to move towards

reform much more rapidly than we should have done. And, in fact, that

was a programme of Emmanuel Macron. He is more a combination of the

social liberal and social Democrat. Yes. We heard lots of people would

be desperately disappointed if they don't get through to the second

round, having been at the top of the poll since the beginning of last

year. Absolutely. I think it would also be a problem for the Front

National, because there are two lines within the Front National, and

Robert Blay the elitist line Marine le Pen and others are wearing have

difficulty, apart from the other line, more liberalist, more

Europe... Is it her all what they call the Republican front that keeps

her out and the far right out of power? Is it the job she's done that

will be criticised if they don't get through? I think it's her,

personally. She hasn't run a convincing campaign? You don't

think? I think she's done a bad campaign, hesitating to choose

between two clear lines. Returning at the very end to what you called

the DNA of the National Front. The memory of the regime, and that, of

have played a great role. We'll have played a great role. We'll

explain the glass ceiling. Lets pontificate for a second. Let's say

that Francois Fillon miraculously gets into the second round after all

he's been through and in a run off with Emmanuel Macron, a manual

macron has the benefit of two pockets of left-wing voters who are

suddenly going to look for someone to vote for. Is he always going to

be in a stronger position than any of the other candidates? Absolutely.

Of course, this will be, after tonight, another election. So this

is probably premature, but we also asked the question of this second

round. Each time, it didn't matter the consideration, Emmanuel Macron

is... He wins, whether he faces, in your polling? Yes. He has to get

through first, of course, we don't know! This would be a new election

because we don't know anything yet, this would be a new election, and

there would be another campaign in two weeks. Yes. If Francois Fillon

was to get through, at the expense of Marine le Pen, what would he have

to do to beat Emmanuel Macron? It would be very difficult. It would

look to the world as a victory of reason, moderation and democracy.

The extreme left and extreme right would not be present on the second

ballot. You anticipate that would be a good thing for France if it

happened? For the image of France and reality of Europe. And what if,

the other reality, we might not know for another ten minutes, but what if

it is the National Front and the hard left? What would that mean for

France? A catastrophe, people would lead. -- would leave. The bank would

be in a difficult position. The market would fall tomorrow. That is

the horror scenario, which is not completely impossible to anticipate,

but hopefully very unlikely. Also for Europe. And also for Europe,

because you would have two Eurosceptic parties there. Let's

talk about Jean-Luc Melenchon. An extraordinary character. I do smile

when I see him on the campaign trail. He is there in his jacket, an

admirer of Hugo Chavez, aligned with the Communists, how is he up there

at the top of the polls? Where is he pulling his supporters from? He is

the most popular in our surveys, compared to the other candidates.

There is nothing to say. He is popular, backed by the communists,

of course, but popular also, you know, with the Socialists. I think

too close to him... He is taken Benoit Hamon? The main Socialist

candidate? He has totally stolen the voters of NOR Hamon. I think it

explains his hype now. It's very interesting, was by far the best

candidate. He is a combination of the spirit of 68, let's rock the

boat completely, and the language of the Communist Party in the 1940s and

1950s. This is this combination of total anachronism and totally

revolutionary spur. Another man that fits the moment? It was the best

also during the debates, the debates, the meetings. He is a great

actor. Years and a very good turn of phrase. There were a couple of

moments in the debate where he skewered his opponents, didn't he?

Doing this... Let's stop very briefly about Mr Hollande. A

disappointing campaign for him. Maybe not entirely his own fault.

No, but largely his own fault. Do you think so? He was the candidate

of the rejection of Hollande, and he went quite far to the left, to the

risk, that happened, of dividing the party. The moderate went to a

Emmanuel Macron and the left went to Jean-Luc Melenchon. He had no space,

but he created that for him. His strategy was suicidal. I think he

has won the primaries for the same reason he will lose the presidential

election. Well, it is fascinating. You are

both going to stay with us, I hope, and see what we get from the

projections. We get our first projections in a little over a

minute's time. Of course, they are about to close all the polling

stations around the country. The first count will begin. It may be

that we don't get a final result for several hours. We may get a front

runner and that we may get two or three candidates following up close

behind. It may be so close, if you look at the polling you could throw

a tea towel over them. It might be so close we don't know who is going

through to the second round, be two or three hours. That is the

situation. It's fascinating. It's going to be an exciting night for

everybody who is watching. We are going to go straight through to the

new hour. You are watching BBC News and we are in Paris. We are in a

beautiful setting, with the Arc de Triomphe lit up behind us by the

late evening sunshine. The Champs-Elysees is full of people,

which tells a bit about the resilience of the French people.

They have been going out to polls. Let's have a little look.

I am just looking at French television. We are looking at the

top of the protection. 23% for Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen

with Francois Fillon and Jean-Luc Melenchon at 19%. This is a

projection, not a final result. Only a projection from the early votes

that have been counted. This is the same. You have Emmanuel Macron on

23%, and Marine Le Pen, as well. So net and neck. As the ball still

does, Francois Fillon and Jean-Luc Melenchon turning up in third and

fourth. Neck and neck as well. This is not a final result, it is a

projection from the early votes that are counted. Yes, but this is the

information we think we can release right now. We will do some fine

tuning throughout the evening, but this is the result. Just looking at

pictures from the Marine Le Pen camp. The flags waving. They think

they are going through to the second round. What does that mean for

French politics? It is a double earthquake. She is in the second

round, plus this is the elimination of the classical political forces in

France. This has never happened before in history. The 2-party

system is over. It is the end of the fifth Republic as we knew it. It

will not be the sixth Republic. The man who wanted to create the sixth

Republic probably won't qualify. As the results are coming, it is fair

to say that the next president of France will probably be Emmanuel

Macron, because all of the projections are that he would win,

all going in his direction. Let's go to the paddock Calais region in the

north. I think people there would be quite optimistic? That's right. It

is pretty chaotic, pretty noisy. They are celebrating as though it

has been confirmed that Marine Le Pen, their candidate, has won as

famous victory. We are working with projections from French TV year.

Those projections are showing her a little by Heinz Emmanuel Macron. The

worry for the Front National is that it is very hard for them to win

transfers from people who voted from other mainstream parties in the

first round. That is for the future. They are chanting we are going to

win. They are waiting for their heroine. They believe that this is

an enormous political achievement for the National front, something of

another breakthrough moment for that party. That is how it looks from

here. The second time that they have got through to the second round

since 2002 cents Jean-Marie Le Pen took them into the second rounds.

For her, is this vindication of the way she has taken the party and

moulded it in her image? Yes, National Front supporters... She has

done a lot to make the party feel a little closer to the centre, not

very much but a little. She would have done something in the eyes of

political scientists to detoxify the party. The problem for Marine Le Pen

is that she would say France has changed, political critics would say

that she has changed. That mountain to climb is obvious from what

happened to her father in the second round of that election when the

Front National made it three in the past. He got less than 20% of the

second-round vote as there was an enormous rallying of voters from the

left and right to keep out the National Front. That is their

problem. That is how the French mainstream will play the second

round if it is proved to be the case, as we believe, the 20th macro

will make it. The pollution on the other side will be to get behind the

other candidate to keep her out. That is a problem that none really

of the other first-round candidates would have faced. The fascination in

the weeks to come is what she tries to do about it. That is the only

path to winning and that is a very difficult one. Kevan, stay with us.

We are going to go to James Reynolds who is at the Emmanuel Macron HQ. I

imagine they are pleased to see that they are at least through to the

second round, if not eating Marine Le Pen. I am checking to see if the

roof is still on here because there was an almighty cheer five minutes

ago when the first projections came up. Everybody started waving their

flags. A tremendous amount of noise. The first projection is exactly what

they wanted. They wanted to get through to the second round. They

believe that Emmanuel Macron will be able to get the votes of the other

candidates who may have been knocked out, particularly the left-wing

candidates. In a straight fight between Emmanuel Macron and Le Pen,

he might get enough votes to become the President of France. This is a

first projection, but the singing of the supporters behind me gives you

an indication of the kind of mood there is here tonight. As Kevin was

saying, they will feel very confident because according to the

polling, he wins in the second round quite convincingly. Yes, all the

polls have shown in recent months that a matchup between these two

candidates, Emmanuel Macron and Le Pen would have Emmanuel Macron

winning convincingly. This is the start that they wanted. Bearing in

mind that Emmanuel Macron has never won an elected office before. He

served two years as an Economy Minister. He started his own party

and now he stands on the verge of getting through to the second round

of the presidential election and possibly even winning the vote. The

French normally collect highly experienced Presidents. It would be

a first Emmanuel Macron gets through. Thank you. Let's go to the

Francois Fillon HQ. I imagine the mood is very different there. Yes, I

clear sense of disappointment here when the results, the first

projections, were announced. Only a few supporters were here and it is a

very sober mood all evening waiting for the first results to come out.

Remember, Francois Fillon got off to a great start in this campaign. A

few months ago he was the favourite in this presidential race, then his

campaign was hit by allegations of corruption. That is when it all went

wrong. The Republican candidate slipped in the polls and that is

when Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen took the lead. He wasn't able to

come back. There was a hope that he would be able to pull it off, that

he would be able to convince undecided voters on voting day that

they would be able to cast their ballots for the Republican

candidate. It hasn't been this way. I clear sense of disappointment

here. They will be looking ahead to the Parliamentary elections, were

obviously the big question now will be if Emmanuel Macron or Marine Le

Pen is confirmed in the run-off, is how will they govern. Thomas, for

the moment, thank you very much. Hugh Schofield has joined us on the

balcony. You have been watching this for months. Are you surprised? Not

surprised. The pollsters predict this. The polls predicted also that

Francois Fillon had not collapsed. I know pollsters have had an awful

time of it in the last year, but they were broadly right and they

were consistent. I am not that surprised. What is surprisingly in

the bigger picture is what it means. The whole political landscape has

been torn out. We have neither a socialist or a Republican,

representatives of the main blocs in French politics that have structured

politics for 60 years, in the final. The next president will not be from

one of these two big blocks. We have this independent character, Emmanuel

Macron, he is so likely to be the next president. In August when he

launched his bid he was asked could be the next president, he said,

well, it could be the next president. It did feel like a long

shot. I did say he could be, not that it couldn't. The stars have

aligned for him they have. The system of the primaries here, what

did was forced both parties into their extreme camps. On the right

you saw people for Francois Fillon he positioned himself closer to the

Front National on identity and hard line on the economy. On the left you

saw the same thing again with Benoit Hamon who was on the left of the

party. This "Hard for Emmanuel Macron to stroll down. We can go

back to the Emmanuel Macron HQ. What is your reaction to the projection

that we have had? Can you hear us? Can you hear us? Give us your

reaction to the projection you have seen tonight. I feel it is a new

history starting for French politics. It is huge. One year ago

En Marche was not even here and is it is new pages for French politics.

It is a very important day. We feel great responsibility. We have

explained that we want to gather progressives together, and that is

what we will do. We are very happy because we are first, in front of

Marine Le Pen, and it is an important thing for democracy, as

well. What kind of France will it be under Emmanuel Macron if he becomes

the president? Can you repeat the question? What kind of France would

be under Emmanuel Macron? It will be a France, confident about itself. An

inclusive France. A chance for everybody. It will be an open

France. I am very excited. It is a new leader, and new vision, new

ideas, new people around him. It is an important day today, that is what

we feel. A few months ago everybody told us it was an impossible bet and

look at us tonight! It is huge and we feel the responsibility of that.

So what will the priority be overdid next two weeks? This is only the

first round, it goes into a run-off with Marine Le Pen a week on Sunday.

What will the priorities be? The priority will be to explain our

values, gather progressives together. We always say is what

matters is value and to agree on the project. We are an movement based on

that. We will gather around a France that is not closed, not afraid. That

will be the next big focus for us in the next two weeks. I am confident,

I believe in my country. What they did tonight is insane. It's awesome!

OK, well done to you. Thank you very much. I am just seeing the results

here for Benoit Hamon. 7%. Is that the end of the Socialist party? Does

it need to rebuild? Will it come back something else? It is the end.

It is a terrible blow to the party. It will explode within the next two

weeks. It will have to be rebuilt on totally new basis, with probably

totally new people. Yes, we see the end of the socialist party as we

have known it. Is this the legacy of Francois Hollande, really? It is

interesting, the Socialist party has always prided itself of being a

party of ideas. On the right, those parties are links to individuals.

Going back to the beginnings of the socialist movement... It is all the

more painful. Francois Hollande's presidency can only be regarded as a

failure as he failed to make the grade for running again. He

disqualified himself. The level of dissatisfaction with him was so high

that he could not keep it together. The thing that a lot of people say

about Francois Hollande is that he is very good at synthesising, like a

sticking plaster over this party for a long time, but now that sticking

plaster has flown away and these constituent elements can be seen.

There have always been warring elements in the socialist party but

there is nothing to keep them together. Nobody feels any great

loyalty any more. In the past that was loyalty, the same way in Britain

and he would have loyalty to the Labour Party, that mattered, it

meant something. Now we are going to of teachers and nurses... Not even

nurses. There is nothing there. Looking at the pictures from the

Emmanuel Macron camp when they when they learned they were top of the

pole this evening, look at this. They are waiting for their man. A

lot of people will say, is this not really Francois Hollande's man? At

former adviser to him, former economic ministers to him. His

thinking was in line with the president. It is not beyond the

realms to think that Francois Hollande would take you couldn't run

as a socialist but mean deformed your own party. Have they been very

clever in what they have done? You could say it is a conspiracy theory.

There was a division of labour between the father and the son. But

it is not that. To a large extent what happens to the Socialist Party

in France can't be compared to the Labour Party in Great Britain. And

the emergence of Emmanuel Macron is for the first time, probably since

1974 and the wind then, a victory of the centre. It is remarkable that in

this moment of Euroscepticism, pessimism, in this moment of

populism, the French are about to elect a man with just the opposite

of that, who incarnates hope, who will fight on the idea of Europe and

he is passionately moderate at a time when people go towards the

extreme. In the way, the French seem to have been making the exact

opposite choice of the Americans are few months ago. Here is a very

cultivated man, a man who reads, a man who likes to quote literary

figures. Our man he is young and whose passion is moderation and he

tries not to object, not to ostracise others. Will he succeed?

That is another story. We were equally confident about Hillary

Clinton, then we just didn't see what was coming. The populist anger

that there was in the country. There is no question she will win. We have

polls that are showing that the electorate of Francois Fillon will

divide itself into three categories. 30% will go for Emmanuel Macron, 30%

will go for Le Pen, 30% may have steam. The majority of the left will

go for Emmanuel Macron. Some will abstain. Every other candidate will

call for Emmanuel Macron, I imagine. There is still this idea of the

Republican vote and even though everything has changed, people still

identified themselves up to a point of whether or not they can't

countenance the idea of the National Front. People feel viscerally about

it. She didn't do that well. She will be good for 5% better than her

father did in 2002. I think somewhere, and this is the

difference between 2002 and 2015, we may see at the end of the second

ballot at the results that the National Front has doubled its

representation. The father did a little more than 20, they might get

40. These are the pictures when they got news of the result for Marine Le

Pen. When you look at the polls, the final result from round one in 2012,

she was on 16%. Now she is on 23%. Even if she loses this time, she

might say that there is a pattern here and there is huge

responsibility on the shoulders, if he becomes president, huge

responsibility on the shoulders of Emmanuel Macron or in five years'

time it could well be Marine Le Pen. The French are putting in 2017 like

the Americans did in 2008. They voted for hope. If Emmanuel Macron

does not succeed, in five years the Americans will vote like -- the

French will vote like the Americans did in 2016. Now we know roughly

what the ship is going to be, but whatever was going to happen in this

election there was going to be change. Something was going to be

different. I know the right likes to betray Emmanuel Macron as the

candidate of continuity, but he is not. There will be an marriage of

liberal social ideas of what you might call modern, or consistent

with other countries's appeal, and it would be easy. There have always

been vested interest against that. These are the latest projections.

Based on a partial count showed that Emmanuel Macron is on 24%, Marine Le

Pen on 21.8%, so both qualifying for the second round. Again, this is an

early projections, still a lot of votes to kind. We had some reaction

from Benoit Hamon, the first candidate to come out. He said I

feel to avoid the disaster that had been announced months ago. He is

encouraging everyone to fight as hard as they can to fight the

extreme right and to fight for Emmanuel Macron. He is urging his

supporters to go over and support the centrist Emmanuel Macron. Part

two expert here, Kevin, give Le Pen no chance in the second round. What

do they say their? The political arithmetic is against her, everyone

knows that. There will be a tendency of the mainstream voters of left and

right to rally against Marine Le Pen and the National Front, to rally

against the extreme right. The interesting question for the next

two weeks is whether she has some kind of strategy to deal with that.

She knows that underlying reality in French politics as well as anybody

else. Clearly, all the people you speak to hear shed those doubts

about what will happen in the second round, but the doubts are for the

days and weeks to come. Tonight here it is about celebrating. They

believe this is a breakthrough moment for Marine Le Pen. They are

aware what happened the last time the National Front got through to

the second round, it lost by Miles, got less than 20% in the second

round. They don't think that will happen again. They think she is a

more popular second round candidate than her father, so they have faith

in her. The reality remains. She will have to think of something

pretty special if she is not to suffer the same second round fate as

her father did all those years ago. That is what makes French politics

fascinating and that is what will make the next two weeks here

fascinating. Kevan, we will be back with you through the evening. If you

are just joining us, to remind you, we have had the initial projections

in the first round of the French election and it is Emmanuel Macron

he appears to be out in front. 24% of the vote, head of Marine Le Pen

on 21% of the vote. That would mean that the two of them go through to

the second round of week on Sunday. We'll bring you plenty more reaction

from here in Paris. You're watching BBC News.

Whether you like it or not, even the risk of snow

In the short term, the weather is quiet, relatively mild,

but by the time we get to Monday and Tuesday, some of us could see

Most of us will not get snow, we just feel the chill,

The satellite picture shows lots of clear weather,

scattered fairweather cloud across central and southern areas.

Most of the UK will stay dry for the rest of the day.

Beautiful end to the day, lovely sunset, the wind is light.

We go to the north, the cloud starting to increase

across Northern Ireland, spots of rain getting into western

Look at the temperature drop in Lerwick.

This is a sign of the colder air coming in, and it

The cold front is the leading edge of that much-colder Arctic air

that will be setting in, and that means some snow

To the south, it will still be relatively mild.

To the south, a bit of cloud and sunshine,

We might need our brollies for a time.

To the north, the much-brighter weather.

Wintry showers down to low levels across the north of Scotland.

Through the course of Monday night into Tuesday, the cold air

Wintry showers possible almost anywhere.

Especially these western and eastern areas.

In the shade, it will feel particularly chilly as we go

On Thursday, things warm up just a little.

Hello, a warm welcome, welcome back to our special results programme

from Paris. I do have a 5-star setting around me. Looking at the

sun setting and behind me the sun is lighting up the Champs-Elysees and

the Arc de Triomphe. It is a lovely setting. It's been a fascinating

evening so far. We've had the early projections in this election. We

know Emmanuel Macron is out in front, Marine le Pen not far behind.

They look to be, and a moment, the two candidates going through to the

second round. Let's get some analysis of that.

Tell us the latest projections you have at the moment? The latest

estimate puts Emmanuel Macron a little ahead of Marine le Pen. 23%

of the voters versus 22% of the voters, so it is close. Is it fair

to say there are still a vast amount of votes to be counted, early days?

Yes, absolutely. But I think it will be stable in one hour, but it won't

change anything on the two finalists. I was standing a Thursday

evening, that dreadful event on the Champs-Elysees, we were talking

about if it would affect the turnout. What are the early

projections for turnout tell us? For today? Yes. We were exactly at the

same level that it happened tonight. You projected... It was a turnout at

78%. So you can hold your head high! We are really happy. Well done you,

a job well done. And of course we've improve the methodology improved it

works. 22% abstention rate, that doesn't mean that everybody has

voted for the candidates among those that have voted? Some have voted

blank, they are allowed to do that? I'm not sure for this first round,

but I'm sure for the second one there will be lots of white ballots.

So even though we have 78% of people voting, they are not necessarily

voting for candidates? Yes, in that case, yes, absolutely. Lots of

people are asking for the recognition of white ballots, but

they are not counted. That's the reason I asked, it's fascinating. 11

candidates, some people say they don't see anyone they want to vote

for. They will look at that when the votes are finally counted. It might

be that in the second round there are fewer people that are going to

vote than in the first round. Absolutely. Some people will say I

don't recognise myself in any of the candidates and I abstain. But so far

there are three winners tonight. First the pollsters, they were

right. Thank you. Everyone said you could see in Great Britain or the

United States, there would be a new method of counting... No, classical

polling did it. They were right in 2012 as well. Is there something

about the way French polls are conducted that is different to

Britain or America? I think we really improved the methodology. We

didn't change it radically, but we also added some social media, some

more columns, triangulation to better analyse the results and to be

in a better position. So I think, yes, it works. Some early reactions

to give our viewers. The interior minister has been speaking tonight.

The presence of the far right candidate in elections 15 years

after the shock of April 2002 marks a clear and strong position of all

of the Republic. It's the reason I call everyone to vote for Emmanuel

Macron. I'm just wondering, if it helps a

manual macron that suddenly all the prominent Socialist suddenly come

out and say, we are going to vote for Emmanuel Macron and so should

use. If they were not to vote for him, that would be a great

impediment for Emmanuel Macron. The left, in its great majority vote for

Macron and the rights will be divided. And by the end, if we look

at the figures, then I say the mathematics look very strongly for

Macron. Everybody thought that Marine le Pen would not only come to

the second round, but would come first in the first ballot. And it

seems not to be the case. I was just making the point to our guests here,

if all the Socialists come out and a back a manual macron, I would assume

Marine le Pen is going to say, there you are, this is the continuity

candidate? I think she will. She will also argue this is a

legitimate choice for French people, to vote for her party, so she will

argue there is no need for a kind of great mainstream rally to the centre

to defeat her. The big question is, has she succeeded in detoxifying

this party to the point where other conservatives feel comfortable

voting for or mainstream conservatives will feel they also

have to join that great rally to the centre and vote for Emmanuel Macron.

Because, of course, he would look like a candidate of the left unless

he can also attract some right wing votes. The tactics of French

politics are pretty clear. In the second round they are both going to

have two tack to the centre and argued there are reasons why people

should be prepared to support them. That, as we've said, is a much

harder argument Marine le Pen make them Emmanuel Macron, but her

supporters hope she is a more attractive candidate personally than

her father ever was. They hope that France has changed enough to change

the rules of the political arithmetic. Most of us who follow

French politics would rather doubt that, but that is where her pathway

to the second round lies. Arguing that she is not the candidate her

father was. The National Front is not the party it was in the old

days, and that also France finds itself in changed circumstances, to

which she is the answer. I don't necessarily believe French voters

are going to buy those arguments, but do expect to hear them, maybe

starting tonight when she appears on this podium just behind me, and we

are expecting her at any moment. I remember being there a few years ago

in a sugar beet factory at close down, the old industry had gone and

it had disappeared to other parts of Europe. There was an anti-Europe

feeling. I wonder what Marine le Pen's progression into the second

round says about the division in France, between urban France and

what they call nonurban France. When we come from outside we tend to talk

about National Front in terms of its policy on immigration, in terms of

its attitudes toward Islam, for example. All of that is valid and

interesting. But I was in another part of provincial France last week,

Nannes, and a journalist told me he thought there was more the

correlation between support for the National Front and a sense that you

belong to a kind of forgotten France. Yes, a place where industry

has closed down, a place where state services aren't as good as they used

to be. The National Front and Marine le Pen in particular will be

positioning themselves as the champions of those parts of France

which don't feel prosperous, which aren't made prosperous by contact

with Europe. We've seen industry collapsing, coal mining has

collapsed here in the old North. So there are more votes out there that

she will regard as possible votes for her. As I say, the whole

question is, to what extent she has changed the image of this party in

the minds of French voters. Having a French voters been encouraged to

seek the National Front as being different than it used to be in the

old days, when Jean-Marie Le Pen was given to talking about the Holocaust

and his attitudes on race and immigration were just too strong for

ordinary mainstream French voters. Very, very interesting question

which also gives you that soap opera quality to French politics. As the

daughter succeeded in changing the party that her father created?

Kevin, we will come back to you shortly. I know Marine le Pen is

going to speak in about ten minutes time. We will go straight back to

that when she does. I am reading here that if he is

elected as president, Emmanuel Macron would be the youngest

resident ever in the Republic, younger than Louis Napoleon

Bonaparte, is that right? It depends whether you speak of Bonaparte the

first council Napoleon the Emperor of France. Younger than Napoleon but

older than Bonaparte. When I was here used to school me about what

people thought about their president. You said to me they like

someone who is conservative and reserved, they see it as the

figurehead of the state and it is the Prime Minister who should be the

fall guy. You always used to say to me, look at Francois Fillon, he is

more statesman-like than Nicolas Sarkozy and that is why they don't

like Nicolas Sarkozy. What are they going to make of a 39-year-old

sitting in that position? There an old tradition in France scored

Bonaparte is. The tradition to go for the provincial man in

exceptional circumstances. I think Macron sees himself, inhibited by

this vision of himself as being the saviour of France. He is saving

France from popular tourism -- populism, saving Europe from the

ghost of populism. Will it work? The task is enormous, but that is, I

think, his vision. Maybe in the exercise of power he may be more

authoritarian than people would like him to be. I'm always confused by

the French. They always say, we want change. All these 11 candidates have

one thing in common, the system is broken. But then when a Prime

Minister president comes along and says, we are going to change it, out

they come to the barricades and they stop it, as they did with Hollande.

You've raised an inquest in -- interesting question, the Prime

Minister question. I think now we see that there will probably be more

than 70% of people that need to reconsider their vote, of course,

for the second round. But Macron is in a good position, of course. But

then, the most important election now will be the legislative one in

June. Because he doesn't have a majority. So who will be chosen for

having the role of Prime Minister? I think you will need to choose

someone that also balances his qualities, his traits, and also his

weaknesses. How is that going to work? It is a fundamental issue that

you raise. Is Macron feeling strong enough tonight? Tehran alone? --

Tehran alone? Or will he announces ticket for Prime Minister in the

coming days? Sorry, we are going to break away because Francois Fillon

is speaking. Let's tune into that. TRANSLATION: Citizens, in spite of

all my effort, in spite of my determination, I haven't managed to

convince you. The obstacle that was thrown in my road were too numerous

and too painful. The truth of that election will be written down, but

for the moment I take on board my responsibility, and that defeat is

mine. It's for me and only for me to bear the weight of that failure. To

all of those who voted for me, or those who have been supporting me

for four years, with courage, all I can address is a message of

friendship and sorrow. I will never forget them, and at the time of the

legislative election they will be able to have the voice of the right

and the centre. Do not disappear, remain united.

Your strength is going to be important and France need it.

Meanwhile we have to choose, we have to choose what is preferable for our

country. I do not do that with a light heart, but abstention isn't

something that belongs to me, particularly when there is an

extremist party ready to pounce on power. The National Front, created

by Jean-Marie Le Pen, its history is well known. Violent, intolerant,

it's economic and social policy would lead our country to failure

and also there would be the European chaos with abandoning the euro. So

extremism, do trust me, can only produce misfortune and division for

France. So there is no other choice but to fight and vote against the

extreme right, and therefore I will vote for Emmanuel Macron. I feel

that it is my duty to tell you that very honestly, and it's for your

conscience now to think about what is the best for your country, but

also for your children. My dream for our children, that they should be

able to live in a country where they are proud of themselves, where they

are not faced with decline, where the promises of our motto is

something that becomes the truth. That was my ambition, that was my

project, that was my dream. And that dream is something that should be

within you. It is for you to find and unite to make it a reality. The

future of France, first and foremost, is in your hands. I trust

you. I will tell you that I am very proud to be one of you, to be a

French person, a French man who loves his country and is going to go

on trusting his country. Long live France and long live the Republic.

APPLAUSE So, that was Francois Fillon, the

former Prime Minister conceding defeat, even though at the moment

votes are still being counted. The projections we are showing you,

some of them differ. It depends which polling agency they come from

but broadly the same, Emmanuel Macron just narrowly ahead of Marine

le Pen, who is in second place and Francois Fillon, as you've just

think in third place, now conceding defeat. One by one these candidates

are urging their supporters to fall behind Emmanuel Macron. That is what

Francois Fillon was saying. It is your responsibility, he said. He

also, as he was speaking, accepted responsibility for his defeat. There

will be a lot of soul-searching within the Republican Party about

what happened here. Back in January he was very much the favourite and

it was the allegations he was facing that undermined his campaign, and a

lot of people in his party felt he should have stood aside.

Let's go to the manual macron camp. James Reynolds watching what I

imagine is a party? -- Emmanuel Macron camp. It is fascinating, they

were watching the Francois Fillon concession speech behind me. He

talked about abstention, they looked nervous, then he said he would vote

for temps -- Emmanuel Macron. It's astonishing how quickly those

endorsements are coming in. It seems going against Marine le Pen is an

advantage because he hoovers up quickly the votes for the other

candidates. There is believe he is strong

favourite to win the second round of the election. Bear in mind it was a

risk for him to pitch his campaign in the centre ground, but it turns

out he has done much better than many people expected. Have we heard

anything from Emmanuel Macron so far? When is he going to speak? I

think there's been one line that he's given to the news agency. We do

expect him to come to the podium here and speak at some point. Events

are moving so quickly, endorsements and concessions are coming so

quickly he might not have to wait much longer. There will be huge

cheers for him. We have seen people embracing, people saying their

strategy has been vindicated, that decision to stand for the centre

ground, which in Europe in recent years seems to have been

evaporating, appears to have paid off. Sometimes they say about the

centre ground, there's nothing in the middle except dead armadillos.

Macron might be proving a counter to that point, that it is possible to

win an election in Europe from the centre ground.

Very interesting point. When he gets the endorsement of the Socialist

party, will he welcomes that, do you think? Or does it put him in a

sticky position? We have just seen looking at those figures how

unpopular Benoit Hamon is. I'm wondering if it really helps if the

Socialists come across to support him?

I think it probably does, because the Socialists have approached him,

he hasn't had to approach the Socialists. That potentially means

he doesn't have to change his programme. If he had to go back for

support and possibly changes programme, look at rethinking some

of his social policies, that might have affected him. What has happened

to my, because he is having to face Marine le Pen, the others are coming

to him. The centre ground for him appears to be holding. He might pick

up the votes without having sacrifice much of his programme.

OK, for the moment, thank you. We will come back to you when a manual

macron appears. We are joined by human rights and civil liberties

activist. Marine le Pen into the second round. There will be many

people, particularly in the suburbs of Paris and the cities around the

country who will be disappointed to see her in the second round. 11.2

million people have voted for her, which is quite worrisome. History

will remember all the candidates didn't barter to be first but second

behind Marine le Pen. That is worrying that people gave in. Maybe

she didn't win because she was better but people gave up and didn't

want to fight. Right now the choice is between a fascist party and in

manual macron. -- Emmanuel Macron. He tried to be appeasing. There is

no point in saying he is evil, if he implements a liberal agenda. Some

people warned it would be very tense in the suburbs this evening if she

got through to the second round, we will have to watch that. A lot of

people when they were interviewed in the campaign said, we don't have an

interest in this election. Might they have a greater interest in it

because the far right is in the second round? Far right I did have

been in power for many years, actually under Francois Hollande

many far right ideas were implemented. The last five years

especially, when it comes to security and identity politics.

People are talking and saying, the far right might be an extreme party,

but the right as well as the left agree on many issues. It's more

about what's going to come after. First the election and then the

Parliamentary election. Emmanuel Macron, it's not clear if he will

have a Parliamentary majority to run the country. The second point is we

have had left-wing populism versus right-wing populism. This might be a

good joke for Jean-Luc Melenchon who might be in a position of strength

to destroy the Socialist party. Dominique, is that a worry for you,

how the suburbs will react to this? Of course. It is an essential issue.

But I would say that Emmanuel Macron, contrary to the Prime

Minister in the Netherlands, never went to the right. He was always the

candidate of moderation. And I think he can have some kind of majority.

Maybe not the traditional majority. Maybe it will be a kind of

coalition, in the style more of Germany than in France. You think it

was in favour Francois Fillon? After event here on Thursday he turned bit

toward security... The mistake for Francois Fillon was not to resign

after the beginning of the scandal, because it was really the moment for

the Republicans to win. If they had had another candidate, the result

might have been completely different. So this was the real

mistake of Francois Fillon, but he tried desperately to win. He used

some kind of arguments that were not dignified. He will have to come in a

way, bear the responsibility for that in the eyes of history. In 2012

the migrant population and the inner cities in France had a candidate in

Francois Hollande who was promising a lot of things. It was all about

jobs, reducing unemployment below 10%, it never happened. Do they just

feel there is a string as far back as you can see of broken promises

here in France. I just came back from a conference last night in a

small suburb. The keyword, the key idea is for once the Socialist party

had a candidate that stood against racism. He got boycotted by the

Socialist party and they all fled to Emmanuel Macron. Benoit Hamon? Yes.

People of my generation on the one before swore to never again vote for

the Socialist party. I think his mistake was running for the

Socialist party rather than as an independent. The ratings for 5%, if

not less than that. Now it might be an opportunity for people actually

get more involved into politics, not by joining the parties but by

becoming more organised and pushing was asking people who came and we

interviewed people who had... Terrorist experts, if part of the

problem in fighting terrorism is there is no information coming? The

division between urban farms and the division with the police as well is

such that they don't get the intelligence they need? Absolutely

false. All the organisations have been working with the police. Many

activists work with the police and in return get put under house arrest

on mere suspicion. There is no Sharon of information between

agencies. We haven't defined what is radicalisation question my nobody

knows. We know it has to do with terrorism but nothing more than

that. The difficulty with this is even our domestic intelligence has

been calling on the French government since 2013-14, to

actually change its strategy and to act, to work with the communities

instead of singling them out. That was not done. There was this

one-upmanship on security. The fact we focused on changing the

constitution to strip people of their citizenship shows terrorism is

not French. I'm sorry, if a person is born and raised in France and

commit an act of terror in France, it's a French problem. I'm bound to

ours, a couple of tense weeks ahead of us, because there are some

theories that the extremists want to get involved in this election and

change the tone of the debate, maybe even change the final result. So

France will be under some quite tight security in the next two

weeks? Yes, of course. They are outside forces that want chaos in

France, or that want extreme is to win in France. But I think the

French have proven to be more resilient than their adversaries

bought, more rational, much more moderate. There was a terrible

attack on this avenue a few nights ago, and it had little if no impact

on the French election. Thousands of people on the Champs-Elysees this

evening. We were just talking about the state of emergency. Has that, do

you think, created some of the division in French society over the

last two years? I don't think so. I think the majority of the French

have accepted the rationales for the state of emergency. They understand

it is for their security. France has not become a police state. There

were people applauding the policeman on the Champs-Elysees on Friday, on

the day after the event. I don't want to paint too rosy a picture is

that they are much more complex realities underground. There are

things that are not fine when you give too much power to some people,

it can go wrong. But on the whole, what you have to realise is that the

man who has been playing the card of repentance in Algeria, the man who

has been preaching moderation, the man who has been leading optimism,

being a beacon of hope in an ocean of despair is number one tonight.

And he is very likely to be the next president of France. For all that

hope it would be a very brave new president that ended the state of

emergency here in France, given the state of the threat France faces. I

would have two disagree. The state of emergency caused division, mostly

against Muslim families fit. These measures were targeting

indiscriminately against Muslims specifically. And people being

targeted. Targeting practising Muslims. I do agree with you,

nevertheless, extremists speak the same language. When Isis published

their paper in February 2015, they called for the impossible, the

impossibility of peace between Muslims and non-Muslims. The

security measures adopted have failed again and again. We had a

Bastille Day attack. Killed police officers. The solution is not more

oppression. Fascinating issues. Very much topical at the moment and they

will be in the next two weeks. Back to Emmanuel Macron's headquarters.

James has a couple of guests with him.

Yes, I have a couple of young campaign workers. You worked on the

campaign, and you are a Macron voter. What is your reaction

tonight? I am really glad he actually made it. We were not sure

that he was going to win. We were really believing in his political

agenda, the programme he made. We were really believing, but you

cannot be certain that it is going to work. Very, very glad. Do you

share that? Was this a surprise for you? It is not a surprise. We hoped.

He was the leader of the campaign, so I was confident about his victory

tonight. His campaign was based on promises, a lot of promises. He's

now got to deliver promises to win the second round. You're going to

have to answer some serious questions from Socialist party

voters,? That is what's best about Emmanuel Macron, that he chose to be

not with the Republicans or not with the Socialists. He said all along

the campaign he would take the best areas from one and another.

Actually, it's best, because it is absolutely new. You can always stay

in this huge gap between left and right. He chooses to be able

progressive and that can go with left and right.

He is only 39 years old, this is his first election, is France taking a

giant risk? I don't think so. We had a young President. He was 48? Yes.

In my opinion, he was a great President so I don't think his age

is a problem for France. I think he is young so it's a value. We can

have... Search for the words! You will look forward to the second

round. We are all now waiting for the candidate to appear on stage.

The roof nearly lifted off this place a while back when he first

projections were announced and there has been repeated cheering when a

defeated candidate comes on and suggests they are about to endorse

Emmanuel Macron. Thank you, James. Interesting CND

supporters, very young supporters. They will be out campaigning for him

over the next couple of weeks. -- interesting seeing his supporters.

If you are just joining us, at the top of the projections at the

moment, Emmanuel Macron of the centrist on March movement. Followed

by Marine Le Pen. We are expecting to hear from Jean-Luc Melenchon and

also from Marine Le Pen. Let's go to the Pas-de-Calais region in the

north of the country. You are still waiting for Marine Le Pen, what is

the reaction from the party? The party is delighted. I've been

speaking to the headquarters senior figures who say this is a clear

victory. For Marine Le Pen's vision of France and France in Europe and

they have a lot of confidence going into the second round. Of course

they have to say that, everyone knows they have an electoral

mountain to climb because of the way in which centrist voters and those

from right and left are encouraged to rally against the National Front.

She said she has a strategy to deal with that. The room has gone a

little quiet, sometimes that means people have been told Marine Le Pen

is on her way in. We have been watching the other candidates

conceding defeat and booing when there are calls from people like

Francois Fillon for his supporters to rally against Marine Le Pen in

the second round. The people in the National Front know that when they

went into the second round before, it went badly for them. They believe

France has changed since then and so are the party and they believe

Marine Le Pen is a much better candidate than her father was. All

of that will be put to the test in the next couple of weeks. This is a

very important speech for Marine Le Pen I think. She knows, as her

supporters know, that that process where defeated candidates from right

and left stuck to call on their supporters to vote against her, to

rally against her, to keep the National Front out, that process

started almost the moment the polls closed in France this evening. We

would expect her to have some con of answer, I would think, to those

defeated candidates and some kind of appeal to those who supported those

defeated candidates so a very important speech. The first round of

the election is not really over yet. We are working with projections and

they are still counting in the background all over France. The

second round of the selection, make no mistake, is already underway and

what Marine Le Pen has to say tonight will be a crucial first blow

in that second round of campaigning. We will come back to you, Kevin,

when Marine Le Pen speaks. You will have seen on your screens the

polling from the Kantar polling agency. You might see other results

on screen from time to time. There are other projections but they are

pretty much the same and as Kevin said, the interesting thing is that

the other candidates have already conceded. We have had a speech from

Francois Fillon, urging his supporters to back Emmanuel Macron.

Benoit Hamon has also spoken and we are waiting to hear from the hard

left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon. The well-known French journalist and

broadcaster Christine has joined us. Tell us a little bit about your

feeling of the first round, is it what you expected? First of all,

it's a political earthquake in this country. The two major political

parties who have really ruled the country for 50 years are out.

Collapsed, dead. The Socialist party is dead and so was the Conservative

Party. You will have bloodshed starting tomorrow morning if not

tonight because obviously, all the leaders, they are all calling to

support Macron now and they will decide how to get there. I have to

interrupted you. It is Marine Le Pen, she is at their headquarters in

Henin-Beaumont in the north of the country in the Pas-de-Calais region.

Let's listen in. TRANSLATION: Fellow citizens, you

have projected me into the second round of the presidential election.

And I'm aware of the honour you are giving me. And I'm humble and

grateful. I would like to express to you French patriots, how grateful I

am. The first step which should lead France to the future is already

covered. It's an historical result and it's for me to take on board the

enormous responsibility of defending France, being responsible for its

culture, its prosperity, and independence and its security. And

it's something to do with French pride, a country that raises its

head, is surer of its values and trusts into the future. I'm sure

absolutely every French person has been aware of the fact that the

system tried through every possible means, to stifle the big political

debate, that the election should have been but that big debate is

going to take place at long last. French people have to take on board

that historical challenge because the challenge of that election is

wild globalisation which attacks our very society. Either we carry on to

total deregulation without any borders or protection and the

consequences that entails, with international unfair competition,

mass immigration, the free trade and the free circulation of terrorists,

or you choose the France with borders that are going to protect

our employment and our national identity. So you have two choices

and that's the real alternate. The real one, not the one where

government merely changes without nothing serious ever-changing. What

I'm suggesting is that we should aim for the real alternatives, which

will put in place a new type of politics, new faces and a real

renewal. It is not with the air of Francois Hollande and all the

failure, this catastrophic five years was that alternative is ever

going to come. The time has come to free the French population and the

whole of the French population without forgetting friends overseas

that trusted me and I'm very proud of the confidence they manifested

towards me. The time has come to get rid of all the arrogant people who

want to dictate to the population what they should do. I am the

candidate for the people. And it's an appeal to all the sincere

patriots, whether they come -- wherever they come from and whatever

their origin and whoever they voted for in the first round, I invite

them all to join us and abandon old-fashioned quarrels and

concentrate on what is the superior interest of our country. That was

really essential. That's what will ensure the survival of France. I

call upon you to unite behind our project of renewal and there will be

our brothers. In the 8th of August 1943, Charles de Gaulle reminded us

of the grandeur of people and there have been 1500 years of the past

behind France and that's the principle and going to implement.

Gathering together of what all the French dream of, it can only happen

through France, long live the Republic, long live France and long

live the population and the people of France. CHANTING

There we are, a beaming Marine Le Pen amid the tricolore is at her

headquarters at Henin-Beaumont. Through to the second round of that

vote, trailing Emmanuel Macron, a huge battle ahead of them if they

are to take the Elysee Palace. Let's get the thoughts of Christian who is

with us. I cut you off in your prime. What we heard from Narine,

pretty predictable, about borders and national identity, she is the

real alternative. That's what we will hear plenty of in the next two

weeks. Indeed and Le Front National also been due faith Emmanuel Macron

because he is the caricature of the system. I'm sure there would have

feared much more, having to face either Fillon or Melenchon because

Ben -- Benoit Hamon's candidate never really sprang up. It will be a

predictable fight in the next two weeks. Emmanuel Macron has already

got the support of all the leaders of the system, be they socialist or

Conservative will of course amuse many voters of traditional families

and they will follow that advice and vote for him. Again, there will be

many people who say, I will not go for the Republican upsurge that we

saw in 2002 when Jacques Chirac lost 82% of the vote. I don't think

that'll happen this time around. I don't it will be as high. But still,

I think Le Front National is a very tough fight ahead, even if and

that's a remarkable achievement of Marine Le Pen's side, I must say,

their ideas, the themes will really remain in the national debate and

that's very much her doing. I will come back to you but let's get a

word from Kevin Connolly who was there at the HQ of Marine Le Pen in

Henin-Beaumont. You are watching these scenes, I know it is very

loud. Christine was saying, this will now be a battle and she will

try to cast it as a battle between her party and the establishment.

That's exactly right. She talked about this system being against her.

We have spoken to a senior figure in the National Front and they say the

entire French mainstream media is running against them. We got a

little taster of the campaign to come. The National Front, she

touched on immigration but also on globalisation, uncontrolled and

unfettered globalisation. The threat to the French way of life. She

invited all French people to rally behind the National Front because

her messages going to be that this is not about being extreme right any

more, it's about being patriotic and standing up to the European Union,

standing up against globalisation, concerns lots of French voters have

and she's trying to tap into that. Marine Le Pen sending a signal that

she is a candidate that all French people should be comfortable

rallying behind. Will that message resonate? There is overwhelming

opposition from the defeated candidates calling to support

Emmanuel Macron. Marine Le Pen has made a pretty good start in front of

a sympathetic audience here in Henin-Beaumont and we wait to find

out to what extent her answers and words resonate in France on a wider

scale. You say the system is against her here but she has had some quite

high profile backing from President Putin of Russia and also from Donald

Trump in America as well. She has. She represents to some extent I

suppose, an antiestablishment impulse which we have seen abroad

elsewhere in global politics and in what is now still a deafening room,

a senior representative of the National Front, I will ask you to

introduce yourself and we will talk about what this means for the party

and for France and what Marine Le Pen's chances are in the second

round. I am a member of the strategy and a joint Marine Le Pen two years

ago for the presidency bid. You used to be an MP for another French

Conservative Party and you saw nothing toxic about the National

Front, to use that word, you think it's a party that other French

voters who support other parties can get behind question I believe so, if

I joined Marine Le Pen and if many people will vote for her, it's

because the one expressing a very strong project for France based on

two key elements, one is identity and the other is sovereignty. She

wants and she believes France has a great future to offer French

citizens and I am very happy the outcome of the election is going to

be a run between Macron and Marine Le Pen as Macron has a completely

different view of the future for France. He does not believe France

has a future, he wants to dissolve front inside the European Union. He

doesn't believe in our identity. He even said France doesn't have any

culture. He believes more migrants should come into France. Marine Le

Pen stands for a very different project. She believes very clearly

and simply that France has a future, but we can rebuild our identity and

that we can rebuild the nation together without having to ask

Brussels what they want us to do. Using the system and media is

against her. All the other candidates are against air. She has

a mountain to climb, can she win? The first round was already a

mountain. The entire media system is owned by people backing our

adversary Emmanuel Macron, so the first run was already made for her

to trip and she did not trip so now people who voted for Francois Fillon

they voted for him because they believed he was talking about

France. We don't think he was being honest and I think a lot of people

joined us in the first round straightaway. People who believed

Francois Fillon were not talking about France are going to join us

because we are the only ones talking about France. The National Front

suffered a disaster a couple of years ago, will it be different next

time? First of all I am not part of Le Front National, I joined Marine

Le Pen and an assembly of people that believe France can offer is

future to the French people. I am very optimistic because of the

clarity of the debate. Thank you. We will speak to you in the second

round I hope. That is the mood here at the National Front gathering in

Henin-Beaumont. There is confidence they can get that message across

that Marine Le Pen has detoxified the National Front, it's a safe

party for the mainstream to vote. Of course they would. She has two weeks

to make that argument on a wider French stage. Lots of worries and

outs for the party because they know Emmanuel Macron is a very strong

favourite candidate in the second round but tonight is a night to

celebrate and tomorrow will be when the strategising and the doubts and

worries become more serious. An earthquake of noise greeted Marine

Le Pen's speech. The question we are waiting for now is to what extent

that speech resonated with other French voters listening at home on

TV. It will certainly resonate with her supporters. But it may well

divide other parts of France. I want to show you some pictures we are

getting in from Bastille in the centre of Paris and these are

clashes between supporters of Emmanuel Macron and those of Marine

Le Pen. It tends to be a focus in Paris for demonstrations. You can

see the riot police involved and some fairly ugly scenes. There were

fears this might happen if Marine Le Pen got into the second round and

clearly some people very angry that she has managed to defeat some of

the more traditional parties to get through to the next part of the

vote. It kind of followers, Christine, that over the next few

weeks with her in the second round, it is not only seems like this

concerning people but also, we're bound to focus on the terrorism.

There are some that want to change the tone of the debate and even the

results possibly. Of course, I'm not sure if these are actually

supporters of either side fighting. You also have people who always take

the opportunity to have a good fight and break a few windows

unfortunately, in that part of town. That being said, yes, let's not

forget that here, we have been living in this country for the past

16 months and the state of emergency. Although people have

shown extraordinary resilience in going about their lives as usual,

this is going to be of course, it will add again to the tension

between these two candidates for the two weeks to come. Marine Le Pen was

actually the only candidate it seems, who took advantage of the

last attack here in the Chavancy lycee last Thursday night. Her

ratings went up one point at the time.

Those scenes will worry you because the focus will be on the suburbs of

Paris as well. Kevin was saying that the message about immigration and

closing the borders against the open facing Emmanuel Macron, that is the

message we will get over the next few weeks. What sort of reaction are

we likely to get from migrant populations in France? They spoke

about the clash is happening in the centre of Paris, not the suburbs. We

haven't seen that many immigrants getting into those clashes. This

shows French society, the choices being imposed by no, it's the hope

of big corporations, a type of economy and identity politics. Now

the question to be answered is how long this system will go on because

of his anti-corruption scandals, of the election, the current scores of

Macron and Le Pen, tell us that at the end of the fifth Republic, the

Socialist party and its message, Le changement, c'est maintenant, the

question is how long can this party state up and running? What do you

want to here from Emmanuel Macron that is different to what we have

heard so far in the campaign? We grew up with people making promises

and breaking them after every election. The reason why I don't

believe anything today is because we have had an example with Francois

Hollande who was elected on the left-wing programme and applied

right-wing to some extent, a far right programme when it comes to

identity and security holidays so regardless of what Emmanuel Macron

says, nothing will oblige him to actually bring about positive

change. But what he can do is actually implement a new system and

work with everybody in this country to give some more counter powers and

more checks and balances for the average citizens and to hold into

account. He has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders.

Indeed and he will have to be very contradictory and meet contradictory

expectations. Unemployment is very high in the country, especially

among young people. Many people feel excluded of the decision-making

system. Emmanuel Macron has promised as he has no political party, he has

actually promised that for the parliamentary elections which will

follow next June, he will have candidates from what we called

nonprofessional society. People who would try to get elected -- for the

first time. How will these people be elected? How will that balance with

all the former Socialist MPs, Conservative MPs, rallying, starting

tonight. It will be a very difficult exercise. In political terms and

even more so in social terms. We are watching pictures from Mr Macron's

HQ and we will go to that when he appears. They are expecting him to

come out and speak any second. As Christine says, there may be

conflicting messages from Mr Macron. He is useful and has the support of

young people and talks about En Marche, let's get France going

again. At the same time, you would expect he would keep the state of

emergency in place, he will want to control immigration so you doesn't

upset the right wing of his party. How will the balance those

conflicting interests. If it is vague, it is definitely fake. Macron

has been swinging between here and there and trying to please as many

people as possible but the time crunch will be under until the

legislative election. Maybe he will make sure you will be rushing to

have as many candidates as possible without due process and without

selecting the most competent ones. Many Socialist candidates began to

rally before the election. The message is sent to the people of

what you would call the suburbs or of ethnic background, when the only

spokesperson of minority background and a Muslim person was put under

pressure by the far right, the immediately dismissed him in a few

hours, just not to resist the cause of the far right because that person

actually shared messages about this and that organisation. Does this

represent some of the frustration there is for mainstream politicians?

I don't share your pessimism. I think the fact that voters have gone

to vote, even if the abstention rate remains as usual, around 20%, there

is indeed an appetite for change in this country and that is

paradoxically, what the two winners show. And they are diametrically

opposed. But it shows that in the democracy in this country is indeed

very vibrant and very vivacious and people go for it. And again, just

think of the French, always depicting themselves about being so

depressed and so morose, consuming so much medicine to be in a better

mood. These people have gone to vote. But he is right, his campaign

or his policies have been vague. Marine Le Pen made this point in one

of the TV debates and he said -- she said what he said was waffle and she

didn't know what Macron stood for. There will be other people who agree

in the country. Yes. He has his coming two weeks. He has been very

vague. It has worked for him, hasn't it? So now, indeed, there will be a

lot of pressure requesting him to be more precise about his programme.

Although his economic programme is pretty precise, especially

concerning taxes. But of course, the French, our politics always goes

through a lot of words. We love words. That's what our culture is

about. So we expect Macron indeed to be much more vocal and much more

engaging and indeed much more precise in what he will offer to

oppose Marine Le Pen. He is nothing if not contrary, Jean-Luc Melenchon,

he is the only one we have not seen from this evening and he is refusing

to concede at this moment. He says he will refuse to allocate a score

based on polls and the big city results are yet unknown so I call

everyone to be cautious. In the projections we have seen, he is neck

and neck with Francois Fillon in third place so he would have to make

up quite a lot to get into the second round. But we will keep an

eye on. There are no incentives for Macron to be more vocal because

people would be voting not for him but actually against Marine Le Pen.

Just as they did for Francois Hollande and against Nicolas

Sarkozy. We have seen in elections that voting for the lesser of two

evils does not bring about positive change. The problem now is that we

also have to look beyond the elections and to get out of this, in

quotation marks, that everything will be solved during elections. We

need to look at the bigger picture at our institutional favouritism.

Right now the fact you vote for someone does not guarantee that

anything will change. That is a good point because looking at Emmanuel

Macron, trying to paint him as an outsider, but he's not. He comes

from where all the politicians come from. He knows how the state machine

works. You could look at it another way and say he is one of the same as

all the rest. Where are the political candidates from civil

society? That is what he is supposed to bring

about for the Parliamentary elections. Let's see if he keeps

that promise. That was one of the appealing argument he expressed at

the beginning. He said, we are all tired of the usual crowds. And so I

promise, said Macron. We will see whether he keeps to his word. He

said, I will bring about new people to Parliament. He also wants, which

would go in your way, to put down the number of Parliament receipts.