Marine Le Pen vows to ‘continue the fight for France’ after defeat

Le Pen calls her defeat a ‘brilliant victory’

Marine Le Pen delivers a speech after being defeated in the second round (EPA)

Despite a third unsuccessful attempt to become French president, far-right leader Marine Le Pen says she will continue to keep up the fight against Emmanuel Macron.

Le Pen lost despite securing 41 per cent of the vote on Sunday, the largest ever for her National Rally party in a presidential vote. Mr Macron won with 58 per cent.

“I will continue the fight for France and the French people,” Ms Le Pen told supporters in a defiant speech after her defeat. “I fear the next five years will not break with the contempt and the brutal policies of the last five years and Emmanuel Macron will do nothing to repair the divisions in our country.”

She also called her defeat a “brilliant victory”.

Despite the loss at the ballot box, many observers have pointed to the fact that the far-right continues to grow in France, potentially pointing to success at the next election.

She was previously beaten 66 per cent to 34 per cent by president Macron in 2017 and her father received less than 20 per cent against Mr Chirac in 2002. She also ran for the presidency in 2012.

Ms Le Pen said she would never abandon the French people and said she would lead the campaign for the parliamentary elections.

She had previously talked about resigning and leaving politics if she lost this election.

“The ideas we represent have reached new heights... this result itself represents a brilliant victory,” Ms Le Pen said on Sunday evening, and as she told supporters she would continue to fight against Mr Macron’s social policy and immigration views.

She and hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, one of 10 candidates eliminated in the first round on 10 April, both quickly highlighted France's legislative elections in June, urging voters to give them a parliamentary majority.

Ms Le Pen's polling this time rewarded her years-long efforts to make her far-right politics more palatable to voters. Campaigning hard on cost-of-living issues, she made deep inroads among blue-collar voters in disaffected rural communities and in former industrial centres.

Mr Macron faces enormous domestic and international challenges, but is constitutionally barred from running for a third term.

Many of those who voted for Mr Macron in the second round did so less out of support for him than for fear of his opponent, Ms Le Pen.