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special on the french presidential election. let's start the results in sunday's first round of voting. on top of 23.75% of votes, far right leader le pen, 21.53%. on may 7. wille's two main parties the socialistnted primary winner came in sixth. they have called for supporters in the runoff. >> in his victory speech, mack brown presented himself as a unity candidate against clinical extremism. acron: i want to become a president for all french people.

ask those to join me where bike -- come from, i will only ask if they agree with the idea of political life. >> he campaigned on neither right or left right. he needs the support of mainstream parties going forward . his rival, le pen, is to paint him as an establishment candidate, a former banker. of realave an option change rather than making no changes. with all the failures of the past five years, the much awaited change will come about. >> attention is on the other -- the public here 19% of the vote. -- 2002 runoff

>> in 2002, there was no chance to win the election and yet people voted and got a huge and many people on the left in particular, there is a real possibility to see supporters. >> organizing an online vote for his supporters to choose. >> claire williams is at the campaign headquarters and she joins me now. what is the latest? what is the plan for today? arrived about an hour ago. windows were tinted so we did not see him. is standing outside the headquarters here, and he

stayed indoors the whole time, when the family's meeting with staff members discussing a strategy of what he will be doing in the next two weeks for the second round of the presidential election. we understand one of the key do,gs they are planning to the campaign will go into overdrive with more door-to-door events, rallies, and campaign events to chase after every single vote because every single vote counts in the election. a realof all, make why macron is different than real le pen. pen.rine le has a more protectionist way of seeing france's future. they really want to push the image that is absent of what macron wants to do. he wants to engage.

>> we heard from le pen earlier today. says he is weak on islamist terrorism. likely to focus a little more on security in the next couple of weeks? only 30inly, macron had years of political experience. he is a to prove reassuring head of state. he said after the attack, the next best day on friday, the campaign,f campaigning two rallies to stay in paris and said i am ready to be the next president of france and deal with this and keep the french people safe. got to show that as a 39-year-old with only four years of political experience that he is able to keep fresh people safe because that is an important factor in the campaign. >> thank you very much, claire williams.

catherine nicholson is on the campaign trail in northern france and joins us now. le pen visited the market this morning. go there today? -- why did you choose to go there today? town,s is a very small only 8000 people live here, close to where le pen held her election party just down the road. it gives you a clue as to why she was here. le pen is for a popular among voters in the town in the region. yesterday, le pen scored 42% of the vote. in second -- a story that tells many in france.

made its money in coal mining, they have since felt abandoned by the rise of globalization and the decline of industry and higher unemployment in towns like this. communist for a letter -- they believe it is marine le pen who better represents their interests. market thist the morning telling me they believe marine le pen, a strong french identity. they talk about the area they see as a threat to their way of life. it is the small people, as they put it, the little man's interest, that they will be protected.

>> what is next for le pen? >> le pen has already reached out saying he is not strong enough on combating islamist terrorism and protecting national security. out, you cananded see it says eradicate islamist terrorism. a whole string of details about security listed on the back, measures le pen wants to take, hiring tens of thousands more soldiers to protect the country. we know is a message she will continue with this week. the policeman who was killed last week in paris, tuesday evening, she will be at a looking at howg they will attack the next few weeks of campaigning.

another, heading to heartland south of france and the southeast, she will hold a nice and we can expect her to continue with themes of national security which have captured the french imagination in recent time. >> thank you very much catherine. joining me now in the studio, thank you very much for coming in. .he pollsters got it right orit that they got it right is it the french public voters were influenced to some extent by the pollsters and perhaps also the media? good. question is very election,to the past

there is a good estimation -- >> if i could interrupt. 2002, when le pen's's father got to the second round. thend rough moment for institute. see, weteresting to and theting mobilization was important yesterday. >> the very scandals. the last weeks before the thereon of yesterday, were a lot of people in the media saying we were afraid and a key point of modernization, at some point, if you have an effect on the vote, people imagine people will not go to vote. afraid of what should

happen if they do not go to vote. abstention just before. people were to go yesterday to vote. we had in france like in the u.s. and the u.k. for years now, new tools coming in the election. that tried to reveal the result today, the victory is the victory of the poor. >> he got 23 points, 75%. is that a real issue going forward? >> we are not used to accepting 2002, quite a special election.

are -- es who go what we can say today is that france used to be in two main blocks for years. i will not go in technical terms. about 20 or 30 years. today, we have four or five locks. it is like a sparkling democracy, not very stable. we have got to be very cautious about what will be on the second term. aboute got to be careful the votes because nothing is written out. >> they called on their -- highrs to vote

score, he did not tell which way the support should go. got two weeks of campaigning by two people not part of the mainstream. macron set up his movement a year ago, and le pen has not been in government before. it is hard to say what to expect in the next couple of weeks. it looks like macron will come out on top. >> all the signs go to macron on top. it is important before the second turn, nothing is written and it is very important the media do not say to people, everything is written, we don't need you. it is a very dangerous game. i think we should repeat that nothing is written. just to give you insight, at the

time i am talking to you, we don't know how the votes will fare. voters get 30% to 40% of who will not move on the seventh of may -- that is to say -- and people often go out from the homes because it is a monday and we don't work on monday. yesterday was sunny. once they give a sign for the candidates -- the owner of the opinion, that is a sentence we repeat every day for nine years now. people are free to vote for the

one they want. for me, what is frightening is 10 years ago, there was 1000 french people, who were to say no to le pen. with one million votes more than in 2012, nearly 7.6 million voters. and we did not have anyone. communication, the one with le pen did succeed. >> she managed to clean up that image. >> definitely. -- the keynt is not

how to block the pup -- the pro-fascist or nationalist, it was a national is soon -- issue. today we go working and nothing has changed. >> we will leave on that note. thank you. thank you for your time and your analysis. the two finalists, two very different views of europe. pro-european and the head of the year p.m. has wished him well in the next round. >> a sigh of relief from european you -- leaders after the victory in the first round of the french residential election. the european commission president took to twitter to congratulate the centrist candidate and wish him well in

the next round. meanwhile, the eu foreign policy was the hopecron and the future of our generation. german chancellor angela merkel also welcome to macron's's while germany's foreign minister said macron'election would be a chance for europe. will be a french president who stands for new beginnings in europe and would not be content with what we are in. he would also bring germany and france close together. >> meanwhile in the netherlands, a far right leader said he was wasghted that marine le pen to qualify for the runoff. on twitter, he wrote this was a celebration for all patriots in europe. >> in the studio, our european affairs editor. very quickly, congratulate

macron, they clearly want him to win because he is pro-eu and has outlined his vision of the future. >> indeed. the vision is more integration and rather than less. outlined a number of ideas. he had want to watch democratic conventions. of to 10 months of talks with europeans across the block, off of a tense -- a 15 page document, a roadmap laying off concrete steps to change and reform and move forward. defense, security, a lovely idea. we will see how far one can go down the road. the eu a sharply divided on the europe, more or less split between western european and eastern european countries. europeanthe eastern countries want more power to go back to the national government. macron is selected, it

remains to be seen how far he will push those ideas. a nice idea and i am not sure anyone would be against such an idea. is on theer summit is migration summit. u.k. is voted out, the other major thing you want to see reformed is the euro zone. he wants to see a budget put in place for the eurozone country, a finance minister, it is the governance that is a major problem. he said back in 2015 with the economic crisis, the bailout wrangling on and on, --

-- the eu and le pen has promised to take france out of the euro and bring tariffs on imports again, bring border controls back, and saying she would like to hold a referendum on membership overall, and this is where the national front has changed. before it was we want out of the eu immediately and as soon as possible. now, we want to talk to the eu

and see if we could change france's relationship and if they do not call within six months, she will put the vote to people. it remains to be seen what the french people will have to say. suggest they are more or less happy. >> a french paper complaining? i never. thank you very much. for a look at how markets are reacting to the first round of the presidential election, let's go to the parents stock exchange where we are joined by stephen. how have the markets reacted? massive relief is the short answer. a huge surge at the opening has continued to the day. france leading shares close to a two-year high after that presidential election, banks leading the gains, a similar picture, massive relief that a

pro-european candidate, someone who is also pro-euro, has gotten through to the second round. markets were fearing most of the second round, marine le pen and the far left, both have very anti-euro views. the euro around 1% against the dollar, edit reacted as soon as the markets opened in sydney. plenty of relief on the markets. how do things look more broadly for the french economy? for that, we go to london, economist. thanks for being with us from london. a huge relief rejoicing on the markets. should we be as optimistic for the prospects of the french economy? highlightingu are the short term of what we are seeing now, i think it will continue in the short term, and

it reflects in part a big relief that we do not have. look at the economy and the economy conditions, the french economy has been performing better than expected .ince the start of the year whoever is the next french president, he or she will have many challenges. unemployment is still quite high although there seems to be positive momentum and growth has been pointing in recent years, so the challenge is quite big going forward. plans, you look for the were you inspired saying they will be able to change things as promised for the better? >> i think the key question and what we look at, the manifesto,

and how much it will be implemented. markets are believed and are not looking beyond the second round. win thesume macron will presidency, then it remains a question of how much support he will have, whether he will have support from parliament to implement his politics, whether he will be able to form the french economy in the way he is proposing, and it will be difficult. he will need to negotiate from the left and the right hand side of parliament. >> are you optimistic that there could be realistic and big change coming with the french economy in the next five years if it is macron who gets to the second round?

>> i am cautiously optimistic, if you put it that way. although we still don't know how much support he will get from it should be easier to get support from the left and the right side of parliament. i am cautiously optimistic. as i said earlier, chances are and we have seen in the past many -- he is not the first -- it makes me cautiously optimistic. >> ok. thank you for being with us. the markets have decided macron will win. they have reestablished

confidence in posters. -- pollsters. theainly, faith restored in polling companies at least p only downside is the value of gold has dropped because in times of trouble, people invest in gold. >> what is it about marine le pen that makes markets nervous? with her to do anti-european policies, and the theory is that if marine le pen would get elected, to institute her anti-euro policies, what economies have been 10 -- economists have been telling us for weeks now -- [inaudible] currency. we would start to see the breakup of the european union and that is what is the focus of most investors. you look at what companies

would put their money, one thing marine le pen has proposed is to -- for hiring workers instead of french workers.

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