Right-wing populist Marine Le Pen through to 2nd round of French election; Wilders delighted

PVV leader Geert Wilders called it "great news" that right-wing populist Marine Le Pen of Front National reached the second round of the French presidential election. In the second round Le Pen is up against Social-liberal Emmanuel Macron. 

"A wonderful day for patriots inside and outside France who want more national sovereignty and less EU and immigration", Wilders said to news wire ANP. "I just sent her my congratulations. Now on to a feisty second round, but I'm hoping for President Le Pen!"

The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the results of the first round of the presidential election around 5:00 a.m. on Monday morning, NU.nl reports. Macron received 23.75 percent of the votes and Le Pen received 21.53 percent. The other two candidates were extreme-left Jean-Luc Melenchon and conservative Francois Fillon. They received 19.91 percent and 19.64 percent of the votes respectively.

The second round of the French presidential election will be held on Sunday, May 7th. An Ipsos poll currently paints Macron as the clear winner. Ipsos expects that supporters of the other two candidates will throw their votes behind Macron. According to the poll, he can count on 62 percent of the votes, Le Pen on 38 percent.