Hollande claims victory, setting up runoff with Sarkozy for French presidency NEW: Socialist candidate Francois Hollande claims victory in the first round Reported exit poll results put Hollande at 28.4% and Sarkozy 25.5% The turnout was 81%, France's Interior Ministry reports A runoff between Hollande and Sarkozy would take place May 6 Paris (CNN) -- Socialist candidate Francois Hollande declared victory Sunday in the first round of France's presidential election, setting up a showdown with incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. The proclamation, made to a crowd of supporters, is consistent with the results of exit polls detailed on French television. Hollande took 28.4% of the vote, while Sarkozy had 25.5%, according to those polls. The figures suggest the two men will face a runoff. Under French law, if no candidate wins an absolute majority, the two top candidates faceoff. The runoff would take place May 6. The exit poll results are bad news for Sarkozy. Historically, the French president comes in first in the first round of the vote. "I want to thank warmly the voters who, through their votes, have placed me in this position," Hollande said Sunday night. This is an act of trust of confidence in my (positions) that I have presented to the French people. According to the exit polls, extreme right candidate Marine Le Pen had 20% of the vote, Jean-Luc Melenchon on the extreme left had 11.7%, and centrist Francois Bayrou had 8.5%. Pierre Oriacombu, a business consultant, told CNN he was voting for the incumbent. "We have a lot of problems, and I think Nicolas Sarkozy does a better job with these problems than many others," he said. But Julien Ceval, voting at the same polling station as Sarkozy and Oriacombu, is backing Hollande. "We need to stop Nicolas Sarkozy and to make a change," said Ceval, an engineer. I'm not really sure Hollande is the man who will change France but I want to try. The turnout was 81%, with more than 12.5 million votes cast, according to France's Interior Ministry. That marks a drop from 2007, when 84% of the nation's voters went to the polls. CNN's Saskya Vandoorne, Azanie M'Packo and Rachel Ramsay in Paris; Dan Rivers and Justine Redman in Toulouse, France; and Laura Smith-Spark contributed to this report.