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
2016, you had brexit, you are trumps surprise victory, which again, he lost a natural popular vote by two points. bolsonaro is elected in 2018. there is of course war bomb, there s of course mary le pen, getting closer and closer to what looks like possibly governing majority. there s right-wing governments taking over in poland, as well, through elections. this sense of sort of a rising tide of reactionary populist nationalism, you know, setting itself against liberalism, against multiculturalism, specifically, it does feel very different now, not that the threat has receded, but it doesn t feel like that, and descended political movement. and trump seems, to me at this point, to kind of epitomized its prospects. yeah, i think so. i mean i, think there s stuck with him, you know? i mean, in a terrible couple of weeks for donald trump, another pole just came out showing him
Multicultural educated u.s. society, sparking this dangerous reaction. the thing i think about is, from 2016 through 2019, i mean, 2016, you had brexit, you are trumps surprise victory, which again, he lost a natural popular vote by two points. bolsonaro is elected in 2018. there is of course war bomb, there s of course mary le pen, getting closer and closer to what looks like possibly governing majority. there s right-wing governments taking over in poland, as well, through elections. this sense of sort of a rising tide of reactionary populist nationalism, you know, setting itself against liberalism, against multiculturalism, specifically, it does feel very different now, not that the threat has receded, but it doesn t feel like that, and descended political movement. and trump seems, to me at this point, to kind of epitomized its prospects. yeah, i think so. i mean i, think there s stuck with him, you know? i mean, in a terrible couple of