Macron, Le Pen in fight to lead France

Ms Le Pen’s campaign for the Front National party centres on wanting to slash immigration, clamp down on free-trade, and overturn France’s relationship with Europe.

The euro risen strongly on Sunday night, when it begins trading during Asian currency market hours.

ASIA’S DAY: Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 1.4 percent to finish at 18,875.88.

The safe-haven yen was dumped across the board with the euro surging 2.6 percent to 120.03 yen while the US dollar gained 1.2 percent to 110.34 yen.

Macron, who quit current president Francois Hollande’s Socialists only a year ago to launch a new party, led the way with over 23.54 per cent of the first round vote.

“It will be very hard for Germany not to engage with Macron on serious euro zone reform if he goes about this in the right way, reforming at home first and reassuring the Germans that Europe will not turn into a transfer union”.

Addressing the battle ahead, he declared he would seek to break with a system that “has been incapable of responding to the problems of our country for more than 30 years”.

“Take the risk that is yours to join me as well as the parliamentary majority I will build right from tomorrow”. “It will be made up of new faces, made up of new talents, and everyone will find a role to play in it”.

Far-right leader and candidate for the 2017 French presidential election, Marine Le Pen, addresses supporters after exit poll results of the first round of the presidential election were announced at her election day headquarters in Henin-Beaumont, northern France, Sunday, April 23, 2017. Le Pen will need to bring in votes from voters who backed conservative candidate François Fillon in the first round. Many commentators expect the same fate for his daughter, but she has already drawn far more support than he ever did and she’s transformed the party’s once-pariah image.

Laurence Haim, a spokeswoman for Macron, told France 24 that she sees the runoff as fairly clear-cut.

In an editorial headlined “The hope of Macron”, Spain’s top-selling daily El Pais said the young centrist’s success “points the way that traditional parties must follow if they want to reconnect with their voters”.

Former French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says the defeated Socialist Party is self-destructing and has to look forward to rebuild.

Like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Macron, 39, has distinguished himself with a mixture of pragmatism and a refusal to take a clear stance on certain issues. “All the best for the next two weeks”.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker expressed similar good wishes for the second round, his spokesman said in Brussels. Fillion and the far-left wing Jean-Luc Mélenchon got around 19% of votes. “There is no other choice but to vote against the far right, I will vote for Emmanuel Macron“.

Macron has promised to cut corporate tax rates gradually to 25% from the current 33%. Like Trump, Le Pen is a an anti-immigration nationalist squaring off against a centrist. “French banks alongside European banks in general will likely be the biggest winners”, said UniCredit analysts in a note.

“I want us to be able to start a business more easily, to innovate more easily” is one of his mantras, explained in depth in his pre-election book “Revolution”.