Macron v Le Pen as mainstream parties are rejected

At the end of the day there was little surprise that it is Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen who will contest the final vote in the French presidential election – the polls had been calling it for weeks – but for the first time since 1958 neither of the mainstream parties will be there.

As the En Marche! and Front National leaders celebrated notching up 23.86% and 21.42% of votes to beat the 19.94% of Les Républicains’ François Fillon and the 19.62% of Jean-Luc Mélenchon (La France Insoumise), it was clear French politics had been transformed.

With the vote on May 7, the next president will not be from either of the parties which have dominated France since the late 1950s – with Parti Socialiste’s Benoït Hamon trailing in on just 6.35% and Mr Fillon managing to grasp defeat from the jaws of what seemed like certain victory back in February.

It was a solid call from the pollsters coming after a string of shocks in the 2015 UK general election, the Brexit referendum and last year’s US presidential, but it confirmed the arrival of a new force in politics with the success of Mr Macron.

He was unknown when President Hollande took office five years ago and only became known when the former investment banker was picked for Mr Hollande’s private office and then as one of his economic advisers and, later, as economy and industry minister.

Even at the turn of the year he was not expected to win votes into the double figures, while Ms Le Pen was already flying high in the polls with a still-to-be-chosen Le Républicains’ candidate as her likely opposition in the second round.

While Ms Le Pen is resolutely of the extreme right, Mr Macron has made himself votable by left, right and centre of politics.

He has already drawn widespread support from defeated candidates, but not left-winger Mr Mélenchon, and is expected to head a claimed ‘Republican front’ against the nationalism of Ms Le Pen.

However, the role he played in the Hollande government has also left him tainted in the eyes of both left- and right-wingers.

Mr Macron is, however, favourite to win the next round and would, at 39, become the youngest president and the first in the Fifth Republic not to have the backing of a mainstream party. He said: “I want to become the president of all the people of France - the president of the patriots in the face of the threat from the nationalists

Ms Le Pen also made an “appeal to all patriots” to follow her to the polls and stands for reclaiming France’s borders, slashing immigration and pulling out of the euro and European Union.

Mr Macron has said that the EU must and will change but also wants an economic transformation in France with a €50billion public investment plan and a cut in corporation tax.