French President Emmanuel Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen are headed to an election runoff on April 24. In the first round of voting, Macron won over 27% of the vote. Le Pen placed second with about 23%. Macron urged French voters to reject Le Pen’s xenophobic policies. 

President Emmanuel Macron: “I want a France which inscribes itself in a strong Europe, which continues to form alliances with great democracies to defend itself, not a France that, exited from Europe, would have for its only allies the international populists and xenophobes. That’s not us.”

The leftist candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon placed third with about 22% of the vote. He urged his supporters to not give a single vote to Marine Le Pen in the runoff. We will have more on the French elections later in the broadcast.