Until just weeks ago, opinion polls showed an easy victory for pro-European Macron, the centrist Macron, bolstered by his active diplomacy for Ukraine, strong economic recovery and the weakness of a fragmented opposition. However, his late entry into the election campaign, with only one large rally that even his supporters considered unbearable, and his focus on an unpopular retirement plan, lowered the president’s rating, along with a sharp rise in inflation. . Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register On the contrary, the anti-immigrant, Eurosceptic far-right Le Pen has toured France with confidence, with all smiles, its supporters shouting “We will win! We will win!” We will win! ” It was reinforced by the persistent focus on cost-of-living issues and the sharp drop in support for its far-right rival, Eric Zemour. Sure, polls still see Macron leading the first round and winning the second round against Le Pen on April 24, but several polls now say that this is within margin of error. Voting started at 8 am (06:00 GMT) and ends at 18:00 GMT, when the first exit polls will be published. Such polls are usually very reliable in France. “We are ready and the French are with us,” Le Pen told cheering supporters at a rally on Thursday, urging them to vote for “the just punishment that those who have ruled us so badly deserve.” Macron, 44, who has been in power since 2017, spent the last days of the election campaign trying to stress that Le Pen’s program has not changed despite efforts to tarnish the image of her and her party in the National Rally. “Its fundamental elements have not changed: it is a racist program that aims to divide society and is very brutal,” he told Le Parisien. Le Pen denies allegations of racism and says her policies will benefit all French people, regardless of their background. RISKS OF SAVING FOR LONG Assuming Macron and Le Pen pass to the second round, the president faces a problem: many left-wing voters told opinion polls that, unlike in 2017, they would not vote for Macron in the second round outright to keep Le Pen out of power. Macron will need to persuade them to change their minds and vote for him in the second round. Sunday’s vote will show who will be chosen by the unusually high number of late undecided voters and whether Lepen, 53, can surpass the polls’ forecast and come out on top in the first round. “Marine Le Pen has never been so close to winning the presidential election,” said Jean-Daniel Levy, a Harris Interactive pollster, on Le Pen’s third nomination at the Palais des Champs-Elysées. Supporters of hard-line candidate Jean-Luc Melanson, who is third in the polls, are hoping for another surprise and have called on left-wing voters on all sides to turn to their candidate and send him to the second round. Macron and Le Pen agree that the result is open. “Everything is possible,” Le Pen told supporters on Thursday, while earlier in the week Macron warned his fans not to discount a Le Pen victory. “Look at what happened with Brexit and so many other elections: what seemed unlikely actually happened,” he said. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Additional references by Elizabeth Pineau and Michel Rose. Writes Ingrid Melander. Edited by: Frances Kerry Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
