French election 2022 - live: Macron and Le Pen trade blows as political landscape labelled ‘field of ruins’

Final two candidates face each other in decisive vote on 24 April

Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen to face each other in French presidential run-off

French presidential candidates Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen have attacked each other at the start of their run-off campaigns, after coming first and second respectively in the initial vote.

With just under two weeks to go until the final round, each politician wasted no time in casting aspersions against their rival.

“Emmanuel Macron, if by some mischance he was re-elected, would feel totally free to continue his policy of social wreckage,” Ms Le Pen claimed, before turning to the cost-of-living crisis, her usual political line of attack.

For his part, Mr Macron accused the leader of the far-right National Rally party of being a “demagogue”, who told people what they wished to hear.

Responding to the first round results, Gérard Araud, a former French diplomat who is now a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council, said his country’s political life was now “more than ever a field of ruins”.

“Macron is leading a centrist block of nearly 30 percent, but his only credible adversaries are extremists,” Gérard Araud explained.

Key Points

• Macron and Le Pen exchange bitter blows at start of run-off campaigns
• French politics now ‘a field of ruins’, says former ambassador to US
• Macron on 27%, Le Pen on 23% after first round of voting
• President campaigns in northern France with warning ‘nothing decided yet’
• Poll puts Macron on course to win 55% in run-off

[11 April 2022 18:23 · Rory Sullivan]

Photos: Macron campaigns in northern France

As we mentioned earlier, Emmanuel Macron has spent time campaigning today in northern France, where his far-right rival Marine Le Pen has stronger support than he does.

Here are some photos from his visit:

The French president arrives in Carvin on 11 April (REUTERS)

Emmanuel Macron poses with construction workers in Denain, northern France (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

A Macron poster in Paris is defaced with a sticker describing him as the ‘president of the rich' (AP)

[11 April 2022 18:53 · Rory Sullivan]

Macron and Le Pen exchange bitter words

French presidential hopefuls Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen have strongly rebuked each other at the start of their run-off campaigns.

The day after the pair were chosen as the final two candidates in the race, each wasted no time in casting aspersions against their rival.

“Emmanuel Macron, if by some mischance he was re-elected, would feel totally free to continue his policy of social wreckage,” Ms Le Pen claimed in a rural area southeast of Paris, drawing attention to the cost-of-living crisis.

While Mr Macron accused her of being a “demagogue”.

“Mrs. Le Pen is a demagogue. She is someone who tells people what they want to hear when they want to hear it,” he told La Voix du Nord newspaper on Monday.

[11 April 2022 19:15 · Rory Sullivan]

Macron says he would travel to Kyiv if ‘useful'

Emmanuel Macron has said he will travel to Kyiv or anywhere else if it is “useful”.

“I am ready to go anywhere and even to Kyiv if it could be useful, if it would help start a dialogue,” he told BFM television on Monday.

The statement comes not long after the French president was criticised by the Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki for talking to Vladimir Putin in attempt to end the war in Ukraine.

“What have you achieved? Did you stop any of these actions? You do not negotiate with criminals, you fight them,” Mr Morawiecki said.

Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister who later served as the president of the European Council, took umbrage at his countryman’s words.

Addressing the French leader, he tweeted: “Mr President, dear Emmanuel, no decent Pole supports Madame le Pen, just like no decent Pole supports Orbán or Putin. Poles, in their overwhelming majority are for Europe, Ukraine and freedom, regardless of the rubbish PM Morawiecki says.

[11 April 2022 19:42 · Rory Sullivan]

Le Pen threatens Macron re-election

The challenge facing the current French president was laid bare at a bar in the village of Gouzon in central France on Monday.

After he narrowly beat his far-right challenger Marine Le Pen in the first round yesterday, Mr Macron will go head to head with her in the decisive vote on 24 April.

The bar’s 53-year-old owner, William Levron, explained why Ms Le Pen is now more popular than Mr Macron in a place which backed him over her in the last election in 2017.

“We’re satisfied because we want change, real change,” he said, referring to Ms Le Pen’s entry into the final two candidates.

[11 April 2022 20:13 · Rory Sullivan]

Photos: Le Pen on the campaign trail

National Rally leader Marine Le Pen is confident she can do a better job of running France than Emmanuel Macron.

However, European leaders are scared by the prospect of the far-right politician winning the presidency.

Earlier today, Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg’s foreign minister, said: “It would not only be a break away from the core values of the EU, it would totally change its course.”

Here are some photos of Ms Le Pen out on the campaign trail:

Marine Le Pen arrives in Soucy, Burgundy, on 11 April (AFP via Getty Images)

The National Rally leader takes a selfie with supporters (REUTERS)

A Le Pen supporter carries a campaign flag in Soucy (AFP via Getty Images)

[11 April 2022 20:48 · Rory Sullivan]

Securing Mélenchon’s votes key to Macron being re-elected

The far-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon won 20.1 per cent of the vote yesterday, not far behind the 21.3 per cent achieved by Marine Le Pen.

What his voters decide to do in the final round of the election on 24 April will have large ramifications for both France and Europe

“Macron needs a slice of the Mélenchon vote to win. And this is where things could go wrong,” writes Mary Dejevsky.

[11 April 2022 20:58 · Rory Sullivan]

French election summary

Here’s how things stand with the French election:

• Incumbent French president Emmanuel Macron faces far right-politician Marine Le Pen in the final round of the election on 24 April.
• Polls suggest he will narrowly win the run-off, but he himself has warned that “nothing is done” and that the presidential battle will be hard fought.
• A former French ambassador to the US described his country’s political landscape as “a field of ruins” after Mr Macron was the only centrist to perform well in Sunday’s vote. The only other politicians who did well were from the far left or the far right, noted Gérard Araud.
• Mr Macron and Ms Le Pen traded blows on the first day of their run-off campaigns. The president called his challenger a “demagogue”, while the National Rally leader claimed her adversary would destroy France socially if he were re-elected.

That’s the end of our live coverage for today.