Since ive been gone . What has been going on. And. Hes back. Barack 0bama has returned to The Public Eye with a speech in his hometown of chicago. Im katty kay in washington, Christian Fraser is in paris. If you ever wanted an election about change, try france this weekend. French voters have just upended decades of political tradition, ousting the main parties and promoting two outliers. In almost equal numbers they voted for a young, centrist man who doesnt even have a party and an older, far right woman who captured a desire for nationalist revival. The two candidates will debate on wednesday and face each other in a second round vote on may the 7th. The meteoric rise of Emmanuel Macron has been remarkable he resigned from the Socialist Party a year ago and no one thought hed do this well. Equally showstopping is Marine Le Pen, whos transformed the Front National and made it a force in this race. The bbcs Lucy Willamson has this report. Two years ago, he was a new face in politics.
Welcome to bbc news. French voters face a clear choice in the next two weeks. The run off in the president ial race will be between two political outsiders, whove left mainstream parties on the sidelines. Emmanuel macrons en marche party, which is barely a year old, won the most votes, in the first round of the election. Hell face Marine Le Pen of the front nastionale. Its more than twenty years since they reached the second round of the electoral process. A victory for either of them could have profound implications for the eu and for brexit. Our europe editor katya adler has the latest. Emmanuel macron looking president ial last nights. A bit prematurely perhaps. Theres a lot of glad handing still to be done two weeks to go before the final vote. Financial markets in brussels may think president macron is a done deal. But she doesnt. Marine le pen, macrons rivalfor president , his rival for french voters trust. A welcome visitor on market day in the forgotten town. Shes the peoples p
Welcome to bbc news. French voters face a clear choice in the next two weeks. The run off in the president ial race will be between two political outsiders, whove left mainstream parties on the sidelines. Emmanuel macrons en marche party, which is barely a year old, won the most votes, in the first round of the election. Hell face Marine Le Pen of the front nastionale. Its more than twenty years since they reached the second round of the electoral process. A victory for either of them could have profound implications for the eu and for brexit. Our europe editor katya adler has the latest. Emmanuel macron looking president ial last nights. A bit prematurely perhaps. Theres a lot of glad handing still to be done two weeks to go before the final vote. Financial markets in brussels may think president macron is a done deal. But she doesnt. Marine le pen, macrons rivalfor president , his rival for french voters trust. A welcome visitor on market day in the forgotten town. Shes the peoples p
Welcome to bbc news. French voters face a clear choice in the next two weeks. The run off in the president ial race will be between two political outsiders, whove left mainstream parties on the sidelines. Emmanuel macrons en marche party, which is barely a year old, won the most votes, in the first round of the election. Hell face Marine Le Pen of the front nastionale. Its more than twenty years since they reached the second round of the electoral process. A victory for either of them could have profound implications for the eu and for brexit. Our europe editor katya adler has the latest. Emmanuel macron looking president ial last nights. A bit prematurely perhaps. Theres a lot of glad handing still to be done two weeks to go before the final vote. Financial markets in brussels may think president macron is a done deal. But she doesnt. Marine le pen, macrons rivalfor president , his rival for french voters trust. A welcome visitor on market day in the forgotten town. Shes the peoples p
But in all of it, was this feeling that it would never get better and i now know that thats not true. Hello. Here in france, round one is over. And after an Election Campaign of twists and turns, The Big Surprise was the lack of big surprise. But it is a huge turning point all the same. The established parties became marginalised, in third and fifth place and now the contest comes down to a showdown between nationalistic populism and globalist liberalism. That is the battle being fought across the west. France is now divided down the middle. The radical candidates, who want to overthrow the existing order le pen on the populist right, melenchon on the left, and six fringe candidates as well they got a total of 49. 6 per cent of the vote in other words, half. There is an enormous well of discontent out there. For now, Emmanuel Macron is the man to watch the best hope for a battered establishment of seeing off the radicals. But the twists continue in this campaign tonight, his opponent M