French in Ireland back Emmanuel Macron in presidential vote

Emmanuel Macron won a decisive victory among French citizens living in the Republic in the first round of France's presidential election on Sunday, with 45 per cent of Irish-based voters opting for the independent centrist candidate.

Mr Macron’s percentage of the vote was more than twice as high as that of the second-placed candidate among French expats in the Republic, the radical leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who received 19 per cent.

Former prime minister François Fillon, of the centre-right Les Républicains, was in third place on 15 per cent, while the Socialist Party’s Benoît Hamon finished fourth on 12 per cent.

Front National leader Marine Le Pen, who finished second in the national vote and will take on Mr Macron in the election run-off on May 7th, had the support of just four per cent of those who voted at the two official centres in Dublin and Cork last Sunday.