Marine Le Pen is expected to make it through to the second round run-off of the French presidential election, first results suggest.
With 33.2 million votes counted from France's 47 million strong electorate, the figures put the leader of the far-right Front National (FN) on 23.08 per cent, where she is expected to face centrist Emmanuel Macron who is on 23.11 per cent.
The figures do not include results from France's major cities, where Ms Le Pen's level of support tends to be low relative to smaller towns and villages where counts were complete.
Early projections from opinion pollsters on the results had shown Mr Macron ahead of Le Pen - with the independent candidate expected to scoop between 23 and 24 per cent of the total vote, with Ms Le Pen getting between 21 and 23 per cent of the vote.
The vote is expected to mark the end of a political era since the two major parties - the Socialist party and the centre-right Les Republicains - which have traditionally been the pillars of France's political arena, are expected to be eliminated in the first round of the election.
Conservative Francois Fillon is on 19.63 per cent with 20 million votes counted and far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon is on 18.09 per cent. projections suggest Mr Melenchon and Mr Fillon will both claim around 19.5 per cent of the votes, with Socialist candidate Benoit Hamon set to pick-up an historically-low 6.2 per cent.
According to the latest polling about the second round, Mr Macron is forecast to beat Ms Le Pen by 62 per cent to 38 per cent, with many political figures quick to join the 'anyone but Le Pen camp'. Conceding defeat, Mr Fillon asked his supporters to back Mr Macron in the second round of voting on 7 May, urging them to keep Ms Le Pen away from the presidency.
"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," Mr Fillon told his supporters..
"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," he added.
As for Mr Melenchon, he said he would not endorse any candidate for the second round.
Mr Macron said the vote showed that the election meant "turning a page in French political history" and that he wanted to gather "the largest possible support" before the 7 May runoff.
The frontrunner called for hope in Europe in stark contrast to Ms Le Pen, who campaigned to leave the European Union (EU).
He said the EU would have to be reformed and revived with a project "which protects" and offers a place to every French citizen.
Addressing her supporters in her fiefdom in Hénin-Baumont, Ms Le Pen said the first hurdle towards the Elysée Palace has been overcome.
She hailed the results as “historic” and warned “the survival of French civilisation” was now at stake.
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel welcomed the projected success of Mr Macron and said he was sure the centrist would become the next French president.
Mr Gabriel tweeted his congratulations to Mr Macron and said: "Felicitations a @EmmanuelMacron. Vive la France, vive l'Europe!"
In an usual move, Mr Gabriel said he would continue to do all he could to support the candidate of En Marche!.
He said: "He was the only really pro-European candidate who didn't hide behind stereotypes about Europe. I'm certain that he will put right-wing radicalism, right-wing populism and anti-Europeans in their place in the second round."
His comments were echoed by Martin Schultz, the Social Democrat who will challenge Angela Merkel in Germany's federal election in September. He said he hoped Mr Macron would win the second round with a broad majority to defeat the "anti-European and openly racist candidate Marine Le Pen".
Gunther Krichbaum, a member of Ms Merkel's conservatives and the head of the parliamentary European affairs committee, said Mr Macron's results were "a valuable sign" for German-French cooperation. He also said he was alarmed that the combined projected votes of Ms Le Pen and Mr Melenchon, who are both critical of European integration, totaled about 40 per cent.
Downing Street told the Independent it would not comment on the results.
Ms Le Pen waited in Hénin-Baumont for the results - with supporters shouting with glee as the projected results came in. Mr Melenchon was in a bar in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, Mr Fillon in his campaign HQ in the 15th arrondissement, and Mr Hamon at the La Mutalité conference centre. With official results still to be counted fully, the only thing that is sure is that the eventual French President would have a name ending in ’n'.
This would be the second time the FN makes it to the final round of a presidential election after the party’s founder Jean-Marie Le Pen went head to head with conservative Jacques Chirac in 2002.
Supporters of Ms Le Pen were quick to hail her, waving flags and shouting "We will win!"
Quentin Leclerc, 22, a history student said: “Marine Le Pen is making history after Brexit [and] Donald Trump.”
“The second round is another battle but we are prepared,” he added.
Michèle Lojanne, who came with her 16-year-old son, said: “really happy she is in the 2nd round”. Louise-Marie Le Maire, 50 and unemployed, said it was “a pity that she is not first but the right wing takes a slap.”
Marion Maréchal Le Pen, Marine’s niece and a FN MP called Ms Le Pen’s progression to the second round run-off “a historic victory for patriots and sovereignists”.
In Paris, others were not so happy. 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 Ms Le Pen’s second-place finish and her anti-immigrant policies.
The fact that results are so close is unsurprising given it was one of the most open election campaigns in recent memory, with Ms Le Pen having been trailing behind Mr Macron in the polls, but not by much. Four candidates had all been in with a chance of progressing.
“Very interesting election currently taking place in France,” tweeted the US President Donald Trump, who has previously spoken of his admiration for strict anti-immigrant security measures proposed by Ms Le Pen. It was perhaps the understatement of the day.
The first projected results showed the centre-right Mr Fillon missing out on the second round, and being set to finish in third or fourth place with results predicted to be close between him and Mr Melenchon.
Mr Fillon’s spokesman called the potential result a “huge disappointment”.
Mr Fillon was one of a number of political figures and groups to urge his supporters to vote for Mr Macron in order to stop Ms Le Pen winning the final round, including France's biggest union, the CFDT.
Following the first early official projections of the results, British organisation Unite Against Fascism called a demonstration to protest against Ms Le Pen in front of the French embassy in London on Monday.
The presidential poll was the first to be held during a state of emergency, put in place since the Paris attacks of November 2015. More than 50,000 police and gendarmes were deployed to the 66,000 polling stations across the country.
Among the first of the candidates to step out earlier in the day was Ms le Pen, who cast her vote at the Jacques Rousseau primary school in Hénin-Beaumont, the small town of around 26,500.
Situated in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, a stronghold for her party, there was a heavy police presence at the polling station and the roads around the school were closed.
Shortly before her arrival however, topless demonstrators from the Femen activist group were detained at the polling station after jumping out of an SUV limo wearing masks of Ms Le Pen and Mr Trump.
Elsewhere a voting station in eastern French town of Besancon was evacuated after reports of a suspicious vehicle.
Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said that explosives experts examined the car, but they deemed there to be no risk.
Turnout is expected to be about 80 per cent across the country, but given the close nature of the result, and the fact that polls suggested around 20 per cent of voters could abstain from voting, Ms Le Pen was not the only candidate receiving support among voters in Hénin-Beaumont,
Arlette, 79 and retired, told The Independent she has always lived in Hénin-Beaumont but was considering not voting “after the show the 11 candidates put on during the campaign”. But in the end she has turned out, to put a ballot for Marine Le Pen. Robert, another retiree, comes to greet her. He is also going to vote but says he is “sickened”, because it is always “the same speech, the same system” offered by the main contenders. To try to change things, he says, he will vote “for a small candidate” - the trade unionist Philippe Poutou.
Justine, 26, is cashier who has never voted before, but has now decided to give her support to Marine Le Pen. What has pushed her this time is the terrorist threat that hangs over France - “If she can do what she said she would concerning the 'fichés S' (a terrorist threat register) and to control borders, it would be a good thing,” she says. Jérémy, 37, also voted Marine Le Pen to “block Macron and Mélenchon”.
However, if it is Mr Macron and Ms Le Pen who make it through to the final round, whoever wins will face difficulties even after the 7 May run-off. Parliamentary elections are to be held in June, with the make up of the MP's in the lower house set to determine how the winner of the election can govern. Mr Macron, who will be fielding candidates from his new En Marche! (On the Move) movement, will need quite a board coalition - while Ms Le Pen will want to see an increase on the current two FN MPs, but she may find herself stymied when it comes to trying to form a majority.
