France's outgoing president, Francois Hollande, on Monday urged people to back centrist Emmanuel Macron in a vote to choose his successor next month, and to reject far-right leader Marine Le Pen, whose place in the run-off represented a "risk" for France.
Hollande, a Socialist nearing the end of five years of unpopular rule, threw his weight behind his former economy minister in a televised address, saying Le Pen's policies were divisive and stigmatized sections of the population.
"The presence of the far right in the second round is a risk for the country," he said. "What is at stake is France's make-up, its unity, its membership of Europe and its place in the world."
This chart shows the share of votes received by candidates in the first round of the French presidential election 2017. /Statista Graphic
Hollande wasn't the only top politician who backed Macron.
Manuel Valls, a former Socialist prime minister on the right wing of the party who broke with far-left candidate Benoit Hamon's campaign after failing to beat him for the party ticket, said on Monday he would be ready to work with Macron.
"We must help him as much as we can to ensure Le Pen is kept as low as possible," Valls told France Inter radio.
The leader of the French Socialists Jean-Christophe Cambadélis said he would vote for Macron in the presidential election’s run-off as his party picked over the ruins of a campaign which saw their candidate Hamon unable to scrape seven per cent of the vote.
“President Marine Le Pen? Never. We have to block the far-right and vote for republican values,” Cambadelis told journalists.
This chart shows second round voting intention in the French presidential election. /Statista Graphic
Defeated candidate Hamon already said on Sunday that he would back Macron in the May 7 runoff.
Hamon told supporters his party had suffered an "historic blow" from its voter base and called on voters to back Macron and reject Le Pen in "the strongest possible way".
Far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon on the other hand refused to throw his support behind either hopeful in the upcoming second-round runoff vote, criticizing both candidates' programs for lacking environmental policies and institutional reforms.
(Sources: AP, Reuters and Statista)
French centrist presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron (L) waves before he addresses supporters at his election headquarters in Paris, on April 23, 2017, and far-right candidate for the presidential election Marine Le Pen (R) waves at supporters after she delivers a speech during a meeting in Bordeaux, southwestern France, on April 2, 2017. /AP Photo
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