Emmanuel Macron or Marine Le Pen?
The first voters from Overseas and abroad are voting this Saturday, time difference requires, for a presidential election with crucial issues.
Before the opening of the polls on Sunday morning in mainland France for this highly anticipated second round.
Off Canada, the archipelago of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon opened the ball at 8 a.m. local (12 p.m. in Paris), becoming the first overseas territory to put a ballot in the ballot box.
Guyana and the other islands of the West Indies, the Pacific and the Indian Ocean will then follow.
Since midnight Friday, the campaign has officially ended in mainland France.
Public meetings, distribution of leaflets and digital propaganda of the candidates are prohibited.
Before the results on Sunday at 8 p.m., no interviews or polls or estimates of results can be published.
Read alsoWhat the media and citizens really have the right to say in this period of reserve
Some 48.7 million French people have the choice, as in 2017, between two candidates with radically opposed programs to lead a flagship country in Europe, in a particularly tense international context with a war raging at the borders of the Union. European.
Europe, economy, purchasing power, relations with Russia, pensions, immigration: almost everything separates the two rivals, who seem to embody more than ever two Frances, after a five-year period peppered with multiple crises, from "Yellow Vests" to the Covid-19 pandemic.
On the one hand, Emmanuel Macron, 44, who came out on top in the first round (27.85%), once again wants to transcend the left/right divides to win.
Given favorite in the polls, he hopes to become the first president of the Fifth Republic re-elected by universal suffrage excluding cohabitation.
He called for blocking the far right, promising lower taxes, pension reform and more ecology.
Read alsoFind here all our daily second round polls
On the other, Marine Le Pen, 53, aims to become the first representative of the far right – a term she rejects – and the first woman to invest the Elysée.
On April 10, she had arrived more than four points (23.15%) behind the outgoing president.
Hardly beaten 5 years ago (33.9% of the vote), it intends to make the opinion polls lie by bringing together a broad anti-Macron front on the theme of the defense of purchasing power and the fight against immigration.
The unknown of abstention
Referee and great unknown in the ballot, abstention is likely to be high, even stronger on Sunday than in the first round (26.31%).
Just like the blank and null ballots which had reached a record in 2017, attesting to the refusal of millions of French people to choose between the two finalists.
Additional risk for participation, the three school zones will be on vacation this weekend, with in particular the start of spring break for the Paris region.
The participation in Overseas will therefore give a first trend on Saturday.
Especially since the rebellious leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, on the strength of his third place on April 10 with 21.95% of the votes at the national level, had come well ahead in the Antilles, exceeding the 50% mark in Guadeloupe, Martinique and Guyana.