Socialists Win In France; Hollande And Sarkozy To Face Off In Second Round of Election

The first round of the French elections is over, and as expected the Socialists and François Hollande will face off against Nicholas Sarkozy in the second round.

Hollande received 28.4 percent of votes, while incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy finished second with 25.5 percent.One huge surprise was the strong third place finish of Marine Le Pen and the National Front, who ended up with 18.5% of the vote.

Far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon of Le Partie Gauche took 11.7%, and centrist François Bayrou got 8.8%.Marine Le Pen exceeded all the pollster's predictions by beating her father’s shocking second-place 16.86% score in the 2002 presidential race.

Even if it was not enough to get her to the second round, the Le Pen's surprise finish confirmed her presence at the head of the Rightest National Front party and it's obvious that a lot of her votes came at the expense of Sarkozy. If they return to him in the runoff,he might just barely eke out a win.