French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday vowed to find a response to the anger of voters who backed his far-right rival Marine Le Pen in elections, saying his new term would not continue unchanged from the last five years.
“An answer must be found to the anger and disagreements that led many of our compatriots to vote for the extreme right. It will be my responsibility and that of those around me,” he told a victory rally in front of the Eiffel Tower after projections showed he had been re-elected.
Macron also pledged a “renewed method” to govern France, adding that this “new era” would not be one of “continuity with the last term which is now ending”.
Macron has opposed Le Pen’s plan to make it illegal to wear the Muslim headscarf in public, though her team has walked back on the proposal ahead of the vote, saying it was no longer a “priority.”
They have also clashed on Russia, with Macron seeking to portray Le Pen as incapable of dealing with the invasion of Ukraine due to a loan her party took from a Russian-Czech bank.
Macron would be the first French president to win re-election in two decades since Jacques Chirac in 2002.
If elected, he is expected to address supporters on the Champ de Mars in central Paris at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.
Polls have shown Macron with a lead of around 10 percentage points, a much closer outcome than in 2017line when the same two candidates faced off and Macron carried the day with 66 percent of the vote.
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