Place for the French.
They are 48.7 million to be expected, Sunday, in the polling stations to decide the direction that the country will take over the next five years.
For the first time since 1981, they will have to decide between a duel already present during the previous presidential election.
Emmanuel Macron facing Marine Le Pen… This face-to-face, rejected mid-term by 80% of the French, has finally largely imposed itself.
The two opponents even managing, five years later, to improve their previous score in the first round.
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The crises, from Covid-19 to the war in Ukraine, have consolidated the central base of the outgoing head of state.
While Marine Le Pen has capitalized on the fears of a popular France which has never managed to recognize itself in the personality of Emmanuel Macron.
Behind this duel also hide two powerful referendums - one against the outgoing president, the other against his rival -, but also
"a class vote",
notes a minister in the light of the results of the first round.
And this while the crisis of "yellow vests" was one of the turning points of the five-year period which is ending.
As in 2017, a candidate who is not afraid of globalization will therefore face a nationalist candidate.
One betting on a strong pro-European discourse and the usual reform agenda of government parties.
The other on the feeling of downgrading and the fear of a drop in purchasing power in a context of the return of inflation.
The door ajar to a surprise
Unprecedented fact, for its third qualification in a second round of a presidential election, the FN, which has become the National Rally (RN), has achieved the feat of normalizing itself in the eyes of many voters.
Thus, the turn of the televised debate between the two rounds – which has never gathered so few viewers – has satisfied both camps.
Without the outbursts of 2017, two very different visions of France were exposed.
Summit of a not very lively campaign, during which it was necessary to wait until the last moment to see a real electoral confrontation settle.
During this last fortnight of the campaign, Emmanuel Macron has especially eyed the voices of the left.
Now embodied by the overwhelming figure of the Insoumis Jean-Luc Mélenchon, she no longer has the same enthusiasm to block the far right.
Proof that the very principle of consensus is losing ground in France, a large part of its voters prefers to take refuge in abstention or a blank vote.
A boon for Marine Le Pen, who concluded her campaign by focusing mainly on the mobilization of her electoral base, betting on a rejection of the outgoing majority.
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If Emmanuel Macron appears to be the favorite of the ballot, the margin examined by the pollsters with his pursuer still leaves the door ajar for a surprise.
Arriving at the Élysée, Marine Le Pen would be the first woman to lead France.
The renewal of the Walker would be a first for an outgoing president without going through the cohabitation box.
A feat when its two predecessors have all been overtaken by unpopularity.
What is more at the end of a five-year period punctuated by significant events.
Electoral Magma
But beyond the scores of the protagonists, the gap between them and the participation rate will be the other information scrutinized on Sunday.
A close score, combined with a significant abstention, would illustrate the anchoring of mistrust in the country.
Whatever the score of the winner, the choice of ballot boxes will not turn into a boulevard for him.
He will settle at the Élysée against nearly 60% of his compatriots who chose to vote in the first round for radical candidates.
An electoral magma and as many antagonisms ready to resurface at any time.
In the street as on the web.
While waiting for these challenges, the political recomposition begun in 2017 will experience a new acceleration next Monday.
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Neither of the two presidential finalists fits into the old left-right divide.
The PS and LR did not resist and are, despite their local roots, at the mercy of the winners.
Allowing all political triangulations before the holding of the legislative elections, on June 12 and 19.
The choice of the next prime minister, like the electoral agreements that will be decided around the three main blocs from the ballot box, will end up redrawing the political offer of a changing France.