Macron and Le Pen go to second round in French election – as it happened

Speaking in her constituency of Hénin-Beaumont, Marine Le Pen had this to say on her advance to the second round run-off on 7 May against Emmanuel Macron:

You have brought me to the second round of the presidential election. I’d like to express my most profound gratitude. The first step that should lead the French people to the l’Elysée has been taken. This is a historic result.

It is also an act of French pride, the act of a people lifting their heads. It will have escaped no one that the system tried by every means possible to stifle the great political debate that must now take place. The French people now have a very simple choice: either we continue on the path to complete deregulation, or you choose France.

You now have the chance to choose real change. This is what I propose: real change/ It is time to liberate the French nation from arrogant elites who want to dictate how it must behave. Because yes, I am the candidate of the people.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the hard-left veteran currently credited with fourth place just behind François Fillon, has said on his Facebook page that he does not yet accept the projected results, saying they are “based on opinion polls” and urging voters to show restraint and commentators to show prudence.

Police have fired tear gas on the Place de la Bastille in eastern Paris as crowds of young people, some from anarchist and anti-fascist groups, gathered to protest at Marine Le Pen’s second-place finish and her hardline, anti-immigrant policies.

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Conservative candidate François Fillon has conceded defeat and called on his supporters to back Emmanuel Macron in the second round:

Despite all my efforts, my determination, I have not succeeded in convincing my fellow countrymen and women. The obstacles in my path were too numerous and too cruel. This defeat is mine, I accept the responsibility, it is mine and mine alone to bear.

We have to choose what is best for our country. Abstention is not in my genes, above all when an extremist party is close to power. The Front National is well known for its violence and its intolerance, and its programme would lead our country to bankruptcy and Europe into chaos.

Extremism can can only bring unhappiness and division to France. There is no other choice than to vote against the far right. I will vote for Emmanuel Macron. I consider it my duty to tell you this frankly. It is up to you to reflect on what is best for your country, and for your children.

More from Marion Maréchal Le Pen, Marine’s niece and a Front National MP. Le Pen’s progression to the second round run-off is “a historic victory for patriots and sovereignists”, she said, adding she was happy with the “clear divide” with Macron.

For fifteen years, there has not been a pro-sovereignty candidate in the second round of a presidential election. This is great ideological victory.

The French prime minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, has joined his Socialist party’s defeated candidate, Benoît Hamon, in urging the party’s voters to support Emmanuel Macron in the second round.

I solemnly call for a vote for Emmanuel Macron in the second round in order to beat the Front National and obstruct the disastrous project of Marine Le Pen that would take France backwards and divide the French people.

A (very) brief word from an Emmanuel Macron spokesman to the French news agency AFP:

We’re turning a page in French political history.

It is worth underlining that this is the first time in modern French history that neither of the mainstream centre-right or centre-left parties of government that have governed France since the second world war have qualified for the second round of a presidential election.

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Polling for a projected second round pitting Macron against Le Pen have consistently shown the centrist winning by a very comfortable margin. Here’s a Guardian graphic of the way the polls have developed over recent months:

Marion Maréchal Le Pen, Marine’s niece, has tweeted her delight at her aunt’s presence in the second round run-off on 7 May, describing it as “a great victory for patriots”: