Francois Hollande leads French first-round vote

Socialist challenger Francois Hollande has beaten Nicolas Sarkozy in the first round of France’s presidential election, according to estimates compiled from ballot samples.

• Socialist challenger Francois Hollande has beaten Nicolas Sarkozy in the first round of France’s presidential election, according to estimates compiled from ballot samples.

• As expected, Hollande and the wounded right-wing incumbent will now face off in the 6 May second-round, but the big surprise of the night was the record score for anti-immigrant, anti-EU flag-bearer Marine Le Pen.

• Hollande won between 28% and 29% of the vote in the first round, to Sarkozy’s 25.5% to 27%, and Le Pen won a best-ever 18-20%.

• “Firstly, I am tonight in the lead among the candidates,” Hollande declared before supporters in his rural political stronghold of Tulle.

• “I am today the best placed candidate to become the next French president.

• “The second major lesson to draw from this election — and this is undeniable — is that the first round was a punishment and a rejection of the incumbent,” he said to cheers.

• Mr Sarkozy sought to put positive spin on the result and brandished his right-wing credentials in a clear nod to Le Pen supporters, despite being the first incumbent to lose a first round-vote in modern French history.

• “We can enter the second round with confidence and I now call on all French people who put patriotism above partisanship or any special interests to unite and join me,” Mr Sarkozy told supporters at a rally in Paris.

• Mr Sarkozy also called for three televised debates before the second round but Mr Hollande refused, saying the single planned encounter would be enough.

• A jubilant Ms Le Pen addressed her supporters after her National Front party’s best ever showing.

• The first opinion poll after the first round said that Hollande would beat Sarkozy by 54% to 46% in the second round and that the attitude of Le Pen’s supporters could be decisive.

• The head of Sarkozy’s UMP party, Jean-Francois Cope, said he looked forward to the second round.

• Far left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon was beaten into fourth place with around 11.7%, a disappointment for his supporters after a barnstorming campaign, and called on the left to unite to oust Sarkozy.

• Turnout was high at at least 80%, down on the 84% turnout of 2007 but up significantly on the 72% of 2002 and belying fears that a low-key campaign would be capped by mass abstention.

• The left has not won a presidential election in a quarter of a century, but with France mired in low growth and rising joblessness, opinion polls had long predicted the left would beat the right-wing incumbent.

• Hollande says Sarkozy has trapped France in a downward spiral of austerity and job losses, while Sarkozy says his rival is inexperienced and weak-willed and would spark financial panic through reckless spending pledges.

• The eurozone debt crisis and France’s sluggish growth and high unemployment have hung over the campaign, with Sarkozy struggling to defend his record and Hollande unable to credibly promise spending increases.

• Opinion polls and campaigning were banned from midnight on Friday, and will now resume on Monday in the build-up to the 6 May run-off.