France: After coming second in Sunday’s first vote, French President Nicolas Sarkozy faces an uphill struggle in the second round of the presidential election.
He won 27.1% of the vote, while his Socialist rival Francois Hollande took 28.6%, the first time a sitting president has lost in the first round.
The two men will face each other in a second round of voting on 6 May.
Third-place Marine Le Pen took the largest share of the vote her far-right National Front has ever won, with 18%.
Hollande’s narrow victory in this round gives him crucial momentum ahead of the run-off in two weeks’ time.
Analysts suggest Sarkozy, leader of the ruling centre-right UMP, will now need to woo the far-right voters who backed Ms Le Pen if he is to hold on to the presidency. But Mr Hollande remains the front runner.
Around one in five people voted for the National Front candidate, including many young and working class voters, putting her ahead of seven other candidates.
The election has been dominated by economic issues, with voters concerned with sluggish growth and rising unemployment.
Ms Le Pen, who campaigned on a nationalist, anti-immigration platform, said she would wait until May Day next week to give her view on the second round.
She told jubilant supporters that the result was “only the start” and that the party was now “the only opposition” to the Left.
Opinion polls taken after voting on Sunday suggested that between 48 and 60% of Le Pen voters would switch to backing Mr Sarkozy in the second round.
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