Far-Right French Candidate Marine Le Pen Advances to Runoff

Right-wing Marine Le Pen and moderate Emmanuel Macron advanced to a final round of voting in the French presidential election, a race that will have serious implications on civil rights and the European Union.

Macron won nearly 24 percent of this weekend's vote, while Le Pen was about two percentage points behind him. If elected May 7, the 39-year-old Macron would be the youngest French president in centuries; even Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte (France's first president and nephew of the most famous Napoleon) was older when elected in 1848,

Le Pen is a right-wing nationalist in the vein of Donald Trump, consistently preaching against globalization. She is part of the Front National, a party founded in 1972 by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, a homophobe and Holocaust denier. Among her campaign promises are temporarily suspending all immigration and putting French interests first, which she claims other leaders have not done. If she's elected, France will almost definitely pull out of the EU, probably bringing an end to the system, which has simplified trade, travel, currency, and immigration among the approximately 28 members.

The United Kingdom is in the midst of pulling out of the EU, following a shocking vote in June. After xenophobe Donald Trump won the Electoral College in November, many are worried that France will follow the U.K. and U.S.'s lead.

Le Pen is no friend of LGBT rights -- she wants to reverse marriage equality -- but still somehow has gay support. Macron supports marriage equality, but strangely said he sympathized with opponents of same-sex marriage.