President Donald Trump on Sunday congratulated Emmanuel Macron on his victory in the French presidential election. But the timing of the leak appeared too late to have a significant impact on voting intentions.
The vote was seen as a litmus test of Europe's drift towards the far-right and the strength of global populism. Despite her loss, Le Pen's advancement to the runoff for the first time marked a breakthrough for the 48-year-old.
Trump never outright endorsed Le Pen, but he expressed support for the candidate, who put anti-immigrant, euro-skeptic views at the center of her campaign. According to the same poll, 33 percent of Macron voters saw their vote primarily as one for "political renewal" (Spoiler: they will be disappointed) and 16 percent put it down to Macron's program, no minor feat as no one really knows what his program will be (something sort-of-Blairite maybe, but probably further to the left).
"The world is watching", said 32-year-old marketing worker Marie Piot as she voted in a working-class part of north-west Paris.
The police said they carried out security checks in the area as a precaution, and later added that the situation there had returned to normal. Le Pen immediately turned her focus to France's upcoming legislative elections in June, where Macron will need a working majority to govern effectively. Macron's team said the hack aimed to destabilize the vote.
En Marche! has also fielded just a handful of candidates but has said it will contest each of the 577 seats.
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The anti-EU, anti-immigration Le Pen said that the election has pitted "patriots" against "globalists" after candidates from the traditionally dominant socialist and conservative parties were eliminated in an April 23 first round vote.
Hundreds of thousands of emails and documents stolen from the Macron campaign were dumped online and spread by anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, in what the candidate called an attempt at "democratic destabilisation". The authorities have opened an investigation into the incident.
"The National Front. must deeply renew itself in order to rise to the historic opportunity and meet the French people's expectations", Le Pen said in a brief address to her supporters shortly after the first projections of the presidential elections' results were released.
A "Frexit" as espoused by Ms Le Pen would be far more devastating than Britain's departure, since France is the second-biggest economy after Germany to use the euro. The country is also a central pillar of the European Union and its mission of keeping post-war peace via trade and open borders.
Until now, modern France had been governed either by the Socialists or the conservatives - but both Macron and Le Pen upended those political traditions.
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