iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Far-right populist Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron appear to have won Sunday’s first-round vote in the French presidential election, exit polling suggests.
The top two vote-getters will face off in a second and final round on May 7 unless one manages to get more than 50 percent of the vote Sunday, which has not happened in a French presidential election since 1965.
“This is still an anti-establishment outcome, even though Macron represents a centrist platform,” Erik Brattberg, director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Europe Program, told ABC News. “Worth watching now is whether other French politicians will be rallying around Macron to defeat Le Pen in 2nd round.”
François Fillon, the conservative candidate who appears to have come in third place, conceded defeat, saying “There is no other choice than to vote against the extreme right. Therefore I am voting for Emmanuel Macron.”
“Le Pen did as expected. There was no hidden Le Pen vote in the first round. While she can get more votes in a second round with only one opponent, she has likely reached a ceiling among her core voters,” Brattberg predicted.
Leading up to the vote, conservative Francois Fillon, a former prime minister embroiled in a scandal over alleged fake jobs given to his wife and children, appeared to be closing the gap in recent days, as was far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon.
“A last-minute push by Fillon and far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon was not enough to get them into the run-off,” Philip Crowther, a correspondent for France 24 in Washington, told ABC News. “This result is a disaster for France’s main two parties — the conservative Republican party and the Socialist party.”
The election is seen as a litmus test for the future of the Europe and the spread of populism around the world.
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