France Goes To The Polls In First Round Of Crunch Presidential Election

If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the top two contenders will face each other at another round of voting scheduled for April 24.

Polls have opened across France for the first round of the presidential election, where Emmanuel Macron is hoping to fight off an insurgency from far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.

Macron, who was first elected in 2017, will stand against 12 candidates in the election, in which up to 48 million people are eligible to vote.

So far Le Pen, of the far-right National Rally party, poses the biggest threat to Macron winning a second term. The far-left’s candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, is polling in third place.

Polls opened at 8am local time on Sunday and will close at 7pm in most places, and at 8pm in some larger cities.

Centrist Macron was initially expected to win the race comfortably with little challenge, but voter disaffection over France’s own cost of living crisis — where energy, food and petrol prices have rocketed — has provided a difficult backdrop for a president who is often criticised as being out-of touch.

The election starting gun for Macron was also dominated by the war in Ukraine and co-ordinating the EU’s response to Vladimir Putin’s aggression.

Le Pen has sought to capitalise on voter apathy over social issues, promising to halt income tax for the under-30s, as well as offering her own package of nationalist policies.

Among them are pledges to drastically reduce immigration from outside Europe, ban Muslim headscarves in public places and ban and halal and kosher butchers.

The National Rally leader has also been helped by Eric Zemmour entering the race. His stance is considered to be more extreme than Le Pen’s, helping her seem more moderate and palatable to French voters.

This weekend only represents the first round of voting for the first 12 candidates.

If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the top two contenders — expected to be Macron and Le Pen — will face each other at another round of voting scheduled for April 24.

This election is not the first time Macron has faced off against his rival.

In 2017, Macron entered the frame as a political outsider to win comfortably against Le Pen by 66% of the vote to 34%.