Hollande, Sarkozy heading to French vote runoff

Angela Charlton - The Associated Press

AP Photo/Bob Edme
Socialist Party candidate for the presidential election Francois Hollande delivers his speech after the presidential election first round, in Tulle, central France, Sunday, April 22, 2012. Official partial results show Socialist Francois Hollande and conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy are advancing to the runoff of France's presidential elections.

PARIS (AP) — Socialist Francois Hollande and conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy are heading for a runoff election in their race for France's presidency, according to partial official results in a vote that could alter the European political and economic landscape.

French voters defied expectations and handed a surprisingly strong third-place showing to far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, who has run on an anti-immigrant platform aimed largely at Muslims. That could boost her influence on the French political scene, hand her party seats in parliament and affect relations with minorities.

With 75 percent of the vote counted, Hollande had 27.9 percent of ballots cast and Sarkozy 26.7 percent, according to figures released by the Interior Ministry after final polls closed.

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April 22, 2012

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1. Philip Vorgias wrote on April 23, 2012 11:03 AM	Same old crap from socialists everywhere, redistribution of income from high wage earners to low wage earners. Class envy is all they've offered the world for decades.

2. Nicholas Kostopoulos wrote on April 28, 2012 10:24 PM	It would be very interesting if Marine Le Pen would win the election. It would mean that illegal immigration and Moslems a would finally be thrown out of France, it would open jobs for the rest of France's citizens, and stabilize the country for the short run, and prevent them from destroying France culture. In the long term, she would have to put in place a government that could to fix the mess of France that she has now. While this is tough, she could do no worse then the other candidate's parties have done in the past.
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Wednesday, June 19, 2013 Last Update: 9:58 PM ET