I m rich barnes. it s hard for people to know how much their accident case is let our injury attorneys know he how much their accident cget the best result possible. this is cnn breaking news. hello and a very warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the united states and right around the world. i m isa soares live in lviv, ukraine. russian forces continue their brutal strikes in the southern and eastern regions of ukraine. i m michael holms live from cnn world headquarters in atlanta. we are one hour away from the polls opening in the french presidential election. macron versus le pen, the rematch.
Only vote on april 24th, but to vote for them. i d like to bring in st stevener linger, chief diplomatic correspondent for the new york times and joins us live from brussels, belgium. thank you for being with us. good morning. so preliminary results show president emmanuel macron in first place with about 27% just ahead of far-right politician marine le pen around 23%. given what we know about the other 10 candidates and their supporters, particularly jean-luc melachon, who do you think will likely win the runoff, macron or le pen? i think it will be macron. after all, this time he won almost twice as much, a larger percentage over le pen than he did five years ago in the first round. and the first round, as much as he s detested by many, many
The government handled the covid-19 pandemic. translator: it is very important for me to vote because we want change. i want change because it has been two very difficult years. reporter: other issues like immigration and identity were major platforms for far-right candidates like marine le pen and hit home with some voters. translator: with all these immigrants who come, france is now no longer us, it s them. reporter: others say it wasn t so much the issues that brought them out as much as it was their duty. translator: because there s too much people that fought for us to have the right to vote, so what does it take to wake up a little earlier to vote on time and express one s opinion? reporter: exit polls show macron and le pen will head to the second round of voting in two weeks. to have a shot at victory, both will need to convince the people who didn t show up sunday to not
The biggest risk to macron is that melac hhon voters and this 51% will either vote for le pen or stay home and abstain. and that is macron s biggest vulnerability, it seems to me. why do you think french voters are so polarized with nearly a quarter of the country selecting a far-right candidate who represents the absolute opposite of what the eu stands for, and why was voter turnout so very low? well, it s low in french terms. it s pretty high in american terms, i have to say. but i think people are angry. and they re tired. and there s covid. and there s a war. and you have in emmanuel macron a very distant figure. everyone knows he s very, very smart. but he seems disdainful of ordinary people. that s his image. he s sort of considered a man of the elite, of the rich, and as
Unpopular. i think he ll win, i think it will be very close. marine le pen has wrapped herself in nice words and her cats, she s become a cat breeder, everyone loves that, she s off theened her image. but i think the french will still have a very hard time forgetting what her party really stands for. so how critical, then, is the leftist politician, jean-luc melachon, in this runoff and how will he likely urge his supporters to vote? he was just 1 percentage point behind le pen. melachon is very, very smart and very articulate. he gives wonderful speeches. and he s in a way a man of the old left. but he has taken over from the socialists and the far-left, but what he s told his supporters overnight is, do not vote for marie le pen. what he hasn t said to them, certainly not yet, is, vote for emmanuel macron.