PARIS — The killing of a policeman by a suspected Islamist militant pushed national security to the top of the French political agenda on Friday, two days before the presidential election.

With the first round of voting in the two-stage election taking place on Sunday, far-right nationalist candidate Marine Le Pen promised tougher immigration and border controls to beat “Islamist terrorism” if elected.

Centrist Emmanuel Macron, who narrowly leads a tight race ahead of Le Pen, said the solutions were not as simple as she suggested, and that there was “no such thing as zero risk.”

Anyone who said otherwise was irresponsible, said Macron, a former economy minister in the government that Le Pen has repeatedly criticized for its security record.

There are four leading candidates in a race that is still too close to call. Sunday’s voting will be followed by a runoff on May 7 between the top two candidates.

The first poll conducted entirely after Thursday’s attack suggested Le Pen had gained some ground on Macron.

While he was still seen winning the first round with 24.5 percent, his score slipped half a percentage point while Le Pen’s rose by one to 23 percent.

Conservative Francois Fillon, a former prime minister, and the far left’s Jean-Luc Melenchon were both down half a percentage point on 19 percent in the Odoxa poll for the newspaper Le Point.

The attack on the Champs-Elysees boulevard in the very heart of the capital added a new source of unpredictability to an election that will decide the management of France’s 2.2 trillion euro economy, which vies with Britain for the rank of fifth-largest in the world.

U.S. President Donald Trump told The Associated Press on Friday he thought the attack will “probably help” Le Pen because she is the candidate who is “strongest on borders, and she’s the strongest on what’s been going on in France.”

Trump told the AP in an interview he was not explicitly endorsing Le Pen but that he believes the attack will affect how French people vote on Sunday.

The outcome could also have a bearing on France’s place in the world and in a European Union still reeling from Britain’s decision to leave. While Macron is ardently pro-EU, Le Pen wants to quit its single currency and potentially hold a referendum on leaving the bloc.

All the candidates are seeking to woo the huge number of undecideds — some 31 percent of those likely to vote, according to an Ipsos poll on Friday.

Fillon also seized on the attack, which was claimed by the militant group Islamic State, saying the fight against “Islamist totalitarianism” should be the priority of the next president. “It’s us or them,” he said.

The Champs-Elysees shooting is the latest in a series of attacks by Islamist militants on France since 2015, in which more than 200 people have been killed. A truck plowed into a Bastille Day crowd in Nice last year, killing more than 80, while coordinated attacks on the Bataclan concert hall and other sites in Paris claimed about 130 lives in November 2015. There have also been attacks on a satirical weekly and a kosher store.

However, previous attacks that have taken place shortly before elections, including the November 2015 attacks in Paris ahead of regional polls, and a shooting in a Jewish school before the 2012 presidential election, did not appear to boost the scores of those espousing tougher national security.

An assault on a soldier in February at Paris’ Louvre museum by a man wielding a machete also had no obvious impact on this year’s opinion polls, which have consistently said that voters see unemployment and the trustworthiness of politicians as bigger issues.

One policeman was shot dead and two others were wounded in Thursday night’s attack.

Investigators are trying to assess whether the gunman had accomplices, anti-terrorism prosecutor Francois Molins told a news conference, adding that the shooter had never shown any signs of radicalization despite a long police history.

After an emergency meeting of security officials, Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said security forces, including elite units, were on alert to back up the 50,000 police earmarked to ensure safety during the election.

“The government is fully mobilized. Nothing must be allowed to impede the fundamental democratic process of our country,” Cazeneuve told reporters. “It falls to us not to give in to fear and intimidation and manipulation, which would play into the hands of the enemy.”

Controls on immigration and national security are cornerstones of Le Pen’s National Front agenda, and on Friday she said she would reinstate border checks and expel foreigners who are on intelligence services’ watch lists.

“I’ve heard Madame Le Pen saying again recently that, with her in charge, certain attacks would have been avoided,” he told RTL Radio. “There’s no such thing as zero risk. Anyone who pretends (otherwise) is both irresponsible and deceitful.”

In an Elabe poll conducted on Wednesday and Thursday, and published on Friday, both Fillon and Melenchon were seen narrowing Macron and Le Pen’s lead.

Should both Macron and Le Pen make it to the second round, he was likely to win the runoff by 65 percent to 35, according to the survey for BFM TV and L’Express magazine.

Fillon, who has slowly clawed back some ground lost after a fake jobs scandal, saw his score in the first round rise half a percentage point to 20 percent.

Melenchon, who would hike taxes on the rich and spend 100 billion euros ($107 billion) of borrowed money on vast housebuilding and renewable energy projects, gained 1.5 points to 19.5 percent as he built further on the momentum he has generated with strong performances in television debates. </s> PARIS (AP) — The Latest on the first round of France’s presidential election (all times local):

French centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen are advancing to the presidential runoff, after major opponents conceded defeat.

For the first time in modern French history, no mainstream party candidate is advancing, upending the country’s political system.

Voters will choose May 7 between Macron, a former investment banker and ex-economy minister, and Le Pen, who has tried to scrub her National Front party of its history of racism and anti-Semitism.

France’s prime minister has called on voters to support centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron against far-right rival Marine Le Pen in the country’s presidential election.

Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has called for the defeat of Le Pen’s National Front party, in comments just after polling agencies projected the two advancing to the May 7 presidential runoff.

The announcement came moments after the Socialist candidate Benoit Hamon conceded defeat. If the results hold, it would be the first time in modern French history that no major-party candidate has advanced to the presidential runoff.

Supporters of French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron went wild with cheers as polling agency projections suggested they could advance to the presidential runoff.

“We will win!” Le Pen supporters chanted in her election day headquarters in Henin-Beaumont. They burst into a rendition of the French national anthem, and waved French flags and blue flags with “Marine President” inscribed on them.

Macron supporter Mathilde Julien said that “he represents France’s future, a future within Europe.”

Silence and disappointed sighs rose up instead at the headquarters of conservative Francois Fillon in Paris as projections appeared on TV screens suggesting he is in third place and wouldn’t make it into the runoff.

French Socialist candidate Benoit Hamon has conceded defeat in the first-round presidential vote.

Polling agency projections showed Hamon a distant fifth place after five years of a deeply unpopular Socialist government.

Hamon said as he acknowledged losing the race that “the left is not dead.”

Projections show that far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron leading in the first round. If their leads hold, it would be the first time in modern French history that no major-party candidate has advanced. Hamon called on voters to back Macron in the May 7 runoff.

Polling agency projections show far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron leading in the first-round French presidential election.

The results could set up a duel between a young candidate with no electoral experience and the woman who remade the image of a party tainted by racism and anti-Semitism.

The race is seen as a litmus test for the spread of populism and could help determine Europe’s future. With most polls just closed, it remained too early to say who advances to the May 7 runoff. Close behind were far-left contender Jean-Luc Melenchon and conservative Francois Fillon.

The projections are based on vote counts in select constituencies, then extrapolated nationwide. If Le Pen and Macron’s leads hold, it would be the first time in modern French history that no major-party candidate has advanced.

Presidential voting in France’s Caribbean territories seems to have lagged behind that on the mainland.

Official figures show that only about 35 percent of the 311,000 eligible voters on the French island of Martinique had voted by 5 p.m. local time Saturday, two hours before polls closed. Final figures were being released with Sunday’s results.

The percentage was even lower elsewhere: Just 34 percent in Guadeloupe and 20 percent in Saint-Martin.

In Martinique, Fort-de-France Mayor Didier Laguerre tells the Martinique 1ere radio station that most voters are probably waiting for a runoff.

Voter turnout in France’s close presidential election is above 69 percent in late afternoon, almost as high as the last presidential vote.

The Interior Ministry announced Sunday that the turnout had reached 69.4 percent, compared to 70.6 percent in the first round of presidential voting in 2012.

After years of economic stagnation and high unemployment, voter disillusionment is exceptionally high this year, prompting expectations of lower-than-usual turnout

Polls have suggested that far-right candidate Marine Le Pen’s voters were especially motivated to cast ballots while supporters of other candidates were less convinced.

Sunny weather in much of France may have played a role. Some pollsters also said an attack on police Thursday may have prodded voters into taking part in the election.

Thousands of people are rallying in Berlin to show their support for the idea of a united Europe and for a pro-European outcome for France’s presidential election.

The weekly demonstrations organized by a grassroots group in Germany and other European countries calling itself Pulse of Europe began at the end of 2016 to counter growing nationalist sentiment and opposition to the European Union.

On Sunday, thousands showed up at the German capital’s Gendarmenmarkt square. They waved the star-spangled blue flags of Europe, held up signs like “Berlin loves France” and sang Europe’s “Ode to Joy” anthem.

Even though the northern French town of Henin-Beaumont is presidential candidate Marine Le Pen’s bastion, that’s no guarantee of votes for the far-right contender.

Voters trickled in Sunday in a steady stream to polling station No. 12, an elementary school where Le-Pen had voted earlier in the day in the first round of France’s presidential election.

Valerie Hosaert, a 48-year-old insurance company worker, says “there are 11 candidates and not one that pleases me … so I’m voting for the least bad.”

Charlotte Villette, 25, added “we don’t have much choice. They’re all losers.”

Yvette Tifou, 67, a retired math teacher, said her choice was “relatively simple” since she is a long-time leftist. She also said Sunday’s presidential vote is more important than past presidential votes in France.

In Montreal, thousands of French citizens have waited in lines that snaked at one point to eight blocks long to cast their votes in France’s presidential election.

Polls opened Saturday morning in Canada’s main French speaking city, home to Quebec’s highest population of French nationals. French citizens lined up to vote at Montreal’s only polling station at Stanislas College in Outremont.

The vote in mainland France is happening Sunday, but polling stations in France’s far-flung overseas territories and in embassies around the world opened on Saturday to allow enough time to collate the vote results altogether.

Outgoing French President Francois Hollande has said the best message of this election would be “to show democracy is stronger than anything” by going out to vote.

Hollande, who is not standing for re-election, oversaw tight security measures for Sunday’s first round poll to help prevent disruption after Thursday’s deadly attack on the Champs-Elysees.

His government mobilized over 50,000 police and gendarmes to protect polling stations.

Voting in his political fiefdom of Tulle in Correze, southwestern France, Hollande said that “we are in such a time, and sadly it’s nothing new and not about to end now, when we must mobilize a lot of means.”

He called the measures a “guarantee to the French people this fundamental right of choosing their future.”

France’s Interior Ministry says the voter turnout so far in the first round of the presidential election is about the same as it was in 2012, when turnout was high.

At midday Sunday, the ministry said that 28.54 percent of eligible voters had cast their ballot, compared with 28.29 percent in 2012.

Commentators have said a low voter turnout would benefit far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, whose voters are seen to have more enthusiasm and are more certain to vote in a low turnout election than supporters of some other candidates.

A voting station in eastern France has reopened after being evacuated because of a suspicious vehicle parked nearby.

Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told The Associated Press that the voting station in Besancon was evacuated while explosives experts examined the car, but they deemed there to be no risk.

He said no other incidents have been reported in Sunday’s first-round presidential election.

Tens of thousands of security forces are guarding voting stations across France after an attack in Paris on Thursday revived security concerns. France remains under a state of emergency after deadly Islamic extremist attacks in recent years.

The top two winners on Sunday will advance to a May 7 runoff.

Topless demonstrators from the Femen activist group have caused a commotion as they staged a stunt against Marine Le Pen outside a polling station where the far-right presidential candidate was heading to vote.

Around six topless Femen activists were detained Sunday morning after jumping out of an SUV limo wearing masks of Le Pen and United States President Donald Trump.

Police and security forces quickly forced them into police vans, confiscating their signs.

Le Pen voted at the station shortly after without further disruption.

The election is taking place amid heightened security. The government has mobilized more than 50,000 police and gendarmes to protect polling stations.

Centrist presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron, one of the front-runners in France’s unpredictable election, has voted in the coastal town of Le Touquet in northern France alongside his wife Brigitte Macron.

The former Socialist economy minister and former banker was relaxed and posed for selfies with voters.

Macron, 39, traveled to Le Touquet this weekend where he has a holiday home for time off the campaign trail.

Other candidates also cast their ballot Sunday morning, including Socialist Benoit Hamon and far-leftist Philippe Poutou.

A total of 11 contenders are vying to advance to the presidential runoff on May 7.

President Francois Hollande has cast his vote in the first round of the French election in his political fiefdom of Tulle in Correze, southwestern France.

The incumbent Socialist president made the unusual move last year of pledging to not stand for re-election.

The Socialist candidate is 49-year-old Benoit Hamon, who is not among the presidential front runners.

Hollande was the most unpopular French leader in the country’s modern history.

The wife of conservative presidential candidate and former French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has cast her ballot near their country home — conspicuously not alongside her husband, due to vote miles away in Paris.

Presidential candidates usually vote together with their spouses.

Welsh-born Penelope Fillon, 61, was handed preliminary charges for her role in a fake jobs scandal — dubbed “Penelopegate” — that had threatened to derail her husband’s campaign.

She voted in the department of Sarthe, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) away from the French capital, where she lives with her husband in a 14th-century manor.

Candidates in France’s presidential election have started to cast their votes.

Hardline right-winger Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, who rails against Europe, was the first of the 11 presidential candidates to vote Sunday morning in his constituency in the leafy Paris suburbs.

Far-left candidate Nathalie Arthaud cast her ballot soon after in the Paris suburb of Pantin.

In Paris, voters were lining up early at polling stations.

The vote “is really important, mainly because we really need a change in this country with all the difficulties we are facing and terrorism,” said Paris resident Alain Richaud.

“It’s definitely risky, but I have faith in the result even if an extreme candidate qualifies for the second round,” said Beatrice Schopflin.

French voters have begun casting ballots for the presidential election in a tense first-round poll that’s seen as a test for the spread of populism around the world.

Over 60,000 polling stations opened Sunday at 0600 GMT for some 47 million eligible voters, who will choose between 11 candidates. It’s the most unpredictable election in generations.

Polls suggest far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron, an independent centrist and former economy minister, were in the lead. But conservative Francois Fillon, a former prime minister, appeared to be closing the gap, as was far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon. </s> The stakes are high ahead of the contest between the pro-European Macron (left), a 39-year-old former economy minister, and far-right leader Le Pen (right), the 48-year-old scion of the National Front party. — File picPARIS, May 3 — French presidential candidates Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen face off in a televised debate today which is expected to be bitter, personal and potentially decisive ahead of voting this weekend.

The stakes are high ahead of the contest between the pro-European Macron, a 39-year-old former economy minister, and far-right leader Le Pen, the 48-year-old scion of the National Front party.

Their starkly different views of Europe, immigration, the economy and French identity will be explored for the first time face-to-face following a week marked by bruising clashes between them.

Polls show Macron holding a hefty but narrowing lead in the polls of 59 per cent versus 41 per cent, but previous debates during the rollercoaster French campaign have quickly shifted public opinion.

“Our goal is to avoid being dragged into mud-slinging,” an aide to Macron told AFP on condition of anonymity ahead of the two hours and 20 minutes of exchanges between the candidates.

Whatever the outcome, the event marks a new step into the mainstream for Le Pen, whose party was once considered by France’s political establishment to be an extremist fringe of racists that should be boycotted.

When her father Jean-Marie made it into the final round of the presidential election in 2002, his conservative opponent Jacques Chirac refused to debate him out of fear of “normalising hate and intolerance”.

Fifteen years later, Le Pen scored 21.3 per cent in the first round of the French election on April 23 after successfully softening the FN’s image — but without fully removing doubt about the party’s core beliefs.

She has consistently sought to paint her ex-investment banker rival as the continuation of unpopular President Francois Hollande and an advocate of uncontrolled globalisation, the financial sector and immigration.

“If he finds himself in difficulty, he can always ask Francois Hollande to come and hold his hand. I won’t complain,” Le Pen wrote on Twitter yesterday in a message signed by her personally.

Her sister Marie-Caroline compared him to “a boy with a bucket and spade” after the last debate on April 5 before the first round of voting.

Trailing in the polls, the face-off will be Le Pen’s biggest chance in front of a television audience to impress millions of views or induce an error by her opponent that could tilt the election in her favour.

Macron is expected to be wary of making mistakes but has signalled his intention to take on Le Pen and challenge what he calls “dangerous” ideas to tackle the country’s deep economic and social problems.

“I want to go head-to-head, to get to the bottom of the issues, to show that these are false solutions,” the independent centrist told BFM television yesterday.

Recent doubt about Le Pen’s stance on withdrawing France from the euro common currency could also give him an opportunity to target what is seen as a risky and unpopular policy by many voters.

A close aide said Macron would home in on “the complete backtrack on leaving the euro”.

Le Pen’s niece Marion Marechal-Le Pen suggested at the weekend that talks about leaving the euro could take years, but Le Pen promised yesterday night to stick with her plans to introduce a new French franc if approved in a referendum.

“It’s not an unknown, it’s not a jump into the void,” she said during an interview with TF1 television.

In the face of the attacks on his background as a highly educated civil servant and banker, Macron is also expected to emphasise his personal story as a self-made man born to two doctors in provincial Amiens.

“I wasn’t born in a chateau,” he said this week, referring to the Le Pen family mansion on the outskirts of Paris where Marine and her sisters were brought up.

Sparks flew when they faced each other in the presidential debates before the first round of voting, when Le Pen memorably accused Macron of waffling for seven minutes and saying nothing.

Macron said she was transforming France’s millions of Muslims into “enemies of the republic.” — AFP </s> Amid heightened security, French voters began casting ballots for their next president Sunday in a first-round poll that's seen as a litmus test for the spread of populism around the world and a vote on the future of Europe.

More than 50,000 police and gendarmes were deployed to the 66,000 polling stations for Sunday's election, which comes after Thursday's deadly attack on the Champs-Elysees in which a police officer and a gunman were slain. The presidential poll is the first ever to be held during a state of emergency, put in place since the Paris attacks of November 2015.

Voters are choosing between 11 candidates in the most unpredictable contest in decades.

The vote "is really important, mainly because we really need a change in this country with all the difficulties we are facing and terrorism," said Paris resident Alain Richaud, who was waiting to cast his vote.

Opinion polls point to a tight race among the four leading contenders vying to advance to the May 7 presidential runoff, when the top two candidates will go head to head.

Polls suggest far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron, an independent centrist and former economy minister, were in the lead. But conservative Francois Fillon, a former prime minister, who was embroiled in a scandal over alleged fake jobs appeared to be closing the gap, as was far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon.

France's 10 percent unemployment, its lackluster economy and security were issues that top concerns for the 47 million eligible voters.

The election is widely seen as a vote on the future of the European Union — with most of the candidates railing against its institutions.

Both Le Pen and Melenchon — two candidates from opposite extremes of the political spectrum — could pull France out of the 28-nation bloc and its shared euro currency in a so-called "Frexit."

A French exit could spell the end of the EU.

If either candidate wins a spot in the runoff, it will be seen as a victory for the rising wave of populism reflected by the votes for Donald Trump in the U.S. and Brexit in Britain.

"It's definitely risky, but I have faith in the result even if an extreme candidate qualifies for the second round," said Beatrice Schopflin, who was queuing to vote in Paris.

Macron and Fillon are committed to European unity and would reform labor rules.

The candidates are voting throughout the day.

Meters from the polling station where Le Pen was heading to vote, several feminist activists from the Femen group were arrested after staging a topless protest against the far-right leader, who is the only major female contender in the race. Police intervened and stopped the commotion minutes before the 48-year-old arrived to cast her ballot in the northern town of Henin-Beaumont. No one was hurt.

Macron, meanwhile, was the image of serenity as he posed for selfies with voters after casting his ballot in the coastal town of Le Touquet in northern France alongside his wife, Brigitte Macron.

Fillon voted in Paris, but his wife — who's been handed preliminary charges for her role in the fake jobs scandal that rocked her husband's campaign — voted 250 kilometers (155 miles) away from him near their 14th century manor house in Sarthe.

This year's roller-coaster campaign has seen much controversy, but some voters appear to have become blasé or turned off from politics.

"There have been surprises, there have always been scandals," said Le Touquet resident Pierre-Antoine Guilluy.

Voter Marie-Christine Colrat said: "Listen, too many candidates. And candidates that caused us a lot of problems, I think that's not a good thing for France."

Unpopular incumbent President Francois Hollande, who pledged last year not to stand for re-election, voted in his political fiefdom of Tulle in Correze, southwestern France.

This year's Socialist party presidential candidate Benoit Hamon cast his ballot in Trappes, a Paris suburb. Melenchon also voted in Paris.

Political campaigning was banned from midnight Friday hours ahead of polls opening in France's far-flung overseas territories such as Guadeloupe, French Polynesia and French Guiana, which all voted a day early Saturday.

Associated Press writers Nadine Achoui-Lesage in Paris, Chris den Hond in Le Touquet and Alex Turnbull in Henin-Beaumont contributed to this report. </s> France's turbulent presidential election season is finally reaching the end game for Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen. Here's what you need to know to get you to the final vote on Sunday, and a little beyond.

After Wednesday night's raucous debate, Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron have just one day left to campaign hard in a final bid to influence voters.

The final campaign stop for Macron was the town Rodez in southern France while Marine Le Pen caused a stir by announcing a surprise visit to Reims Cathedral in north eastern France.

The local mayor, a member of the Republicans party was not impressed, reminding the anti-EU far right leader that Reims was a symbol of Franco-German reconciliation and a city that was "turned towards Europe".

They continued their appearances on the media with Macron responding to questions on radio station RTL on Friday morning while Le Pen has been invited on channel M6 at 7.45pm.

The day before the result is announced is a chance for a bit of a break from the election circus for candidates and the press as both campaigning and publishing polls aren't allowed by French law. The official campaign ends at midnight on Friday and any French media caught publishing polls after that would be slapped with a €75,000 fine.

"Election silence" for a limited period of time before the vote is fairly common and used in countries such as Australia, Ireland, Spain and Italy, often as a "cooling off day" for reflection to create a voting environment that's a little less pressurized.

On the big day French people will head to the polls from 8am to 7pm, or until 8pm in the big cities. One petition is going around to get people to vote after 5pm on Sunday to send Macron a message of their reluctance to vote for him.

Where will the candidates be on Sunday?

The candidates themselves get to vote too. Macron will vote in the northern seaside town of Touquet where he and his wife Brigitte have long been registered. Le Pen will again vote in Hénin-Beaumont, the northern National Front-run town where she held her election night in the first round.

Macron has yet to announce where he will hold his election night event but it will be in Paris.

Le Pen's team said her event will be in the capital this time, to the relief of the scores of international journalists who had to figure out how to reach Hénin-Beaumont in the first round.

She will spend the evening at the Bois de Vincennes to the east of the city for the result, and a celebration afterwards (whether she wins or loses).

Both events will be packed with supporters, staff and hundreds of French and international media, including The Local France.

Join us from 3pm on Sunday for our live coverage.

The crucial result will be announced once again at 8pm, when the image of the next president of France will be shown on TV screens, prompting either wild celebrations or groans of despair among the public.

The photo below shows the moment François Hollande's face was broadcast when he won in 2012.

The result is based on the votes counted in 250 designated polling stations around the country that are considered to be have an accurate cross section of French voters. Hence the initial percentages given at 8pm can change slightly as the rest of the votes are counted.

However these days with social media and foreign media who don't stick to the strict rules it's hard to keep the results under wraps until 8pm.

Station Radio Londres is notorious for side-stepping the election silence rule and releasing polls and estimations before 8pm. The French public are told to be wary of the unofficial results and rumours spreading around on the election weekend.

The "official" final figures won't be announced until May 11th.

In 2012 thousands thronged into Place de la Bastille to celebrate François Hollande becoming the first Socialist president to be elected since 1988.

But it's unsure whether there will be such a spontaneous public outpouring of joy and emotion in Paris on Sunday, regardless of the result.

Le Pen plans to celebrate at the Bois de Vincennes to the east of Paris, whether she wins or not, while Macron is set to celebrate in the iconic Esplanade du Louvre where the pyramids are, but only if he becomes president.

Whoever wins on May 7th will be inaugurated between the 11th and the 14th May, the date when Francois Hollande's mandate runs out.

There will be a formal "passing over of powers" as well as the traditional trip to the City Hall in Paris.

But election season isn't quite over as the regional "legislative" elections begin their first round on June 11th, and second round on June 18th.

And then it's off to work for the next five years before we do it all again. </s> France’s far-right National Front stepped up its anti-European Union rhetoric on Wednesday, days after toughening its stand against immigration, in an apparent bid to mobilise its core supporters ahead of Sunday’s presidential election.

Opinion polls have for months predicted that National Front (FN) chief Marine Le Pen would attract enough votes to make it to the two-way runoff on May 7 but the gap with other contenders has narrowed, and the rhetoric of her party has sharpened.

“You’ll see, we’ll soon stuff your oligarchic rag in the cupboard,” Le Pen’s second-in-command, Florian Philippot said of the EU flag in a message on Twitter.

He was reacting to the European Commission’s representative office in France, which posted on Twitter: “Proud of our flag, symbol of unity, solidarity and harmony between the peoples of Europe. Let’s not hide it.”

The EU executive was referring to Le Pen’s demand on Tuesday night that French TV station remove the blue, yellow-starred EU flag from the stage where she would be interviewed, leaving just the French blue-white-and-red flag.

“I want to be the president of the French Republic. I don’t want to be European Commission president. I consider the EU has done a lot of harm to our country,” Le Pen told TF1 when asked to explain her demand that the EU flag, a frequent feature in such situations, in the background.

Le Pen on Monday pledged to suspend all immigration with immediate effect if elected, a proposal that does not appear in her manifesto but that touches on a subject which is crucial to her core supporters. It goes further than her previous plans to curb migration.

EU-bashing is popular with grassroots FN supporters, though opinion polls show a healthy majority of French are attached to EU membership. </s> Marine Le Pen, French National Front political party leader and candidate for the French 2017 presidential election, attends a campaign rally in Marseille, France, April 19, 2017. — Reuters pic

MARSEILLE, April 20 — French far-right candidate Marine Le Pen yesterday accused her rivals of turning a blind eye to Islamic terrorism at her last major rally before the first round of a nailbiting race for president.

Addressing nearly 5,000 flag-waving supporters in the southern city of Marseille, where two Frenchmen were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of planning an attack on the election, the National Front (FN) leader said: “I have been denouncing this terrible poison of Islamic terrorism since I launched my campaign ... and none of my rivals are willing to debate the subject.

“They wanted to stay quiet about this problem, to suppress it, to keep it at a distance like one sweeps dust under the carpet,” she said.

“The silence of the other candidates comes from shame, the shame of being a member or even having led a government which did nothing to lower the threat and even created the conditions for this scourge to develop,” she told the rally, which was held under tight security.

Police fired teargas and arrested four people after around 500 people demonstrated against Le Pen and tried to march towards the rally.

Some of them threw projectiles and firecrackers.

“Terrorist acts have multiplied throughout Europe during the campaign,” she said. “Here in Marseille two fanatics were arrested before they committed odious crimes.”

Le Pen, 48, has spent years trying to grow support for the FN by campaigning on bread-and-butter issues, but in the final days of the race she has returned to its stock themes of immigration and national identity.

In a BFM television interview yesterday she repeated that she would slash immigration, make it harder to get French nationality and crack down on suspected Islamists.

Polls show Le Pen, 39-year-old centrist Emmanuel Macron, conservative former prime minister Francois Fillon and hard left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon locked in a tight four-way race ahead of Sunday’s first round of voting.

A new survey published yesterday showed Macron leading on 23 per cent to Le Pen’s 22.5 per cent — both of them down slightly.

Fillon had improved to 19.5 per cent while Melenchon had reached 19 per cent, narrowing the gap with the frontrunners.

The top two will advance to a run-off vote on May 7.

Jean-Yves Camus, an academic and expert on the FN, told AFP that Le Pen had returned to the “fundamentals, and particularly immigration” in the final run-in.

“It’s back to basics,” he said.

“The FN top brass has decided to go full throttle for far-right voters.”

Struggling Socialist candidate Benoit Hamon, whom polls place fifth, attempted to turn around his campaign at a rally in Paris.

Hamon urged voters to “wake up, because you alone can avoid a nightmare for France.”

After a string of Islamist-inspired assaults in France, security to the centre of the campaign following the arrests of two men seen in a video pledging allegiance to the Islamic State jihadist group.

A cache of weapons and explosives was found in the apartment of the suspects named as Clement Baur, 23, and Mahiedine Merabet, 29.

Macron yesterday told a rally that he was the only candidate capable “of ensuring the security” of his countrymen and pledged to “track down all those who have attacked our country or are planning to do so and prevent them from doing harm.”

Le Pen has claimed that her proposals such as expelling any foreigner convicted of a crime or suspected of being radicalised would have helped prevent some of the attacks since 2015 which have claimed more than 200 lives.

Left-leaning Le Monde newspaper has dismissed the claim as “absurd” given that most of the attackers were French, many without criminal records.

“You don’t seek votes on the backs of dead people. It’s a sort of moral red line,” the newspaper said.

French voters have so far been more concerned about unemployment and their spending power than terrorism or security, polls show, though analysts warn this would change quickly in the event of bloodshed.

Some analysts have also depicted the French election as a sort of referendum on the European Union, with Le Pen proposing to a referendum on France’s membership of the 28-country club and scrap the euro common currency.

On Tuesday night, she insisted that the TF1 television channel remove the blue-and-yellow European flag from behind her before an interview.

But Melenchon, her eurosceptic hard left opponent, sought to soften his position on Tuesday night, stating that he did not seek to end the European Union or the euro despite criticising the “ultra-liberal” trading bloc for years.

“Don’t believe what they tell you, ‘He wants to leave Europe, the euro’... let’s be serious,” he told supporters.

The Communist-backed candidate has pledged to renegotiate some of the founding treaties of the bloc, however, which would cast serious doubt on the viability of the postwar project of integrating the continent.

Polls show that a majority of French people still support the EU and the euro.

The election has been one of the most unpredictable in decades and takes place against the backdrop of Britain’s shock decision to leave the EU and Donald Trump’s presidential victory in the United States. — AFP </s> The far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s place in the second-round of the French presidential election cements her Front National party’s steady rise and growing presence on the country’s political landscape.



Le Pen took the highest score her party has ever registered in a French presidential election, but while her father Jean-Marie Le Pen sparked a political earthquake 15 years ago by reaching the final round, this time there was little surprise.

Polls had predicted for months that her popularity was growing among an electorate that was disillusioned and angry at the political class and keen to send the harshest political message that it was time for change.

“This result is historic,” she told supporters on Sunday night. “It puts on me a huge responsibility to defend the French nation, its unity, its security, its culture, its prosperity and its independence. The main thing at stake in this election is the rampant globalisation that is endangering our civilisation.”

But Le Pen enters the next two weeks of final-round campaigning as the underdog. All polls suggest that tactical voters from left and right will join together against her – as they did in the regional elections of 2015 – and make her chances of winning on 7 May slim.



The French voting system, in which a second round takes place two weeks after the first, does not usually favour her anti-immigration and anti-European Union party. Polling by Cevipof has shown that more than half of French people think she is a danger to democracy – and the majority do not want her to win the presidential election. But she is nonetheless expected to improve on her first round score and greatly narrow the gap with the winner, far more than her father did in 2002 when he took 18% to Jacques Chirac’s 82% in the final vote.

The central message of Marine Le Pen’s campaign was the staple of the Front National party since it was co-founded by her father in 1972: keeping France for the French. She promised to give priority to French people over non-nationals in jobs, housing and welfare, and would hold a referendum to cement this policy into the constitution. She said she would demand extra tax from companies that employed any kind of foreign worker.

In the final days of the campaign, she returned firmly to the main concern of her electorate: immigration. She went further than she had done before by promising to immediately suspend all legal immigration in order to reassess what she called the “uncontrollable situation” of foreigners coming into France.

Le Pen also railed against what she called “Islamic fundamentalism”, promising to clamp down on certain types of preaching and organisations. She promised a ban on religious symbols, including the Muslim headscarf, from all public places. “A multicultural society is a multiconflict society,” she said in a speech in Paris. “I want every French person, no matter where they are in France, to maintain their liberty and their rights that Islamic fundamentalists want to deny them.” Her supporters shouted “this is our country!” at her rallies.

Le Pen set out to style the election as a battle of “patriots” on her side against “globalists” such as the independent centrist Emmanuel Macron on the other. She said only she understood the “forgotten” peripheral France, hit by unemployment and fears for the future, neglected by the privileged elites of cosmopolitan cities.

Thursday’s attack in which a police officer was shot dead on Paris’s Champs-Elysées gave Le Pen a last chance to press home her security agenda. “The nightmare is beginning again,” she said, promising to deport foreigners on a watchlist of suspected Islamist radicals. 



A short campaign film showed children sleeping in bed at night and implied Le Pen was the only person who could protect them against terrorism. “It’s 3am, the phone rings at the Elysée, there’s a grave and imminent threat to France. Who would you want to pick up the phone?”

Donald Trump said Le Pen was the strongest French candidate and she was boosted among her party faithful by Britain’s Brexit vote last year. She said she would hold an in-out referendum soon after taking office, after negotiations to change France’s position in the EU. She said she would immediately pull out of Europe’s Schengen borderless zone. She promised a return to “national monetary sovereignty” even though her plans to leave the euro were once seen as hindering her party’s progression among older and retired people on the right.

Le Pen began her campaign much earlier than the other candidates, free of any party primaries, but it seemed to be flagging towards the end and she dipped in polls.

She was asked on a radio programme this month about a major wartime roundup of Jews in Paris. She said France as a nation was not responsible, only “those who were in power at the time”, sparking fury from Jewish organisations. Le Pen argued that modern France should not be locked in a permanent repentance and that the “real” France was General de Gaulle’s Resistance not the “illegal” Nazi-collaborationist Vichy regime.

She went further than her Holocaust-denying father had ever done in slamming the Vichy regime as illegal but the comments backfired and threatened to damage her efforts to “detoxify” the party’s image. “Her mistake was to think that she could make a comment about the second world war,” said one French political observer. “Anything about the war will always drag the party back to Jean-Marie Le Pen and his negative image.”

She also faced allegations of illegal party funding through fake jobs paid for by EU parliament funds and campaign funding irregularities in France.

She claimed she was the “victim” of a system ganging up against her and appeared at first to be unscathed. But as the campaign drew on, it was harder to avoid the quips of other candidates. After she refused to attend questioning by judges in the case, she was attacked by the anti-capitalist candidate Philippe Poutou in a TV debate. He said the working class were not lucky enough to have the “immunity” from the law that she was seeking.

She also faced protests at some rallies: Corsican nationalists on the island of Corsica and leftwing demonstrators in Paris.

The presidential race is not the only key election for Le Pen. Crucial for the party are the parliamentary elections in June. The Front National has only two out of 577 MPs and need at least 15 MPs to form a political group in parliament, but they believe this is now within reach. </s> PARIS (REUTERS) - Independent centrist French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron extended his lead in the polls over his far-right rival Marine Le Pen on Friday (May 5), the final day of a tumultuous election campaign that has turned the country's politics upside down.

The election is seen as the most important in France for decades with two diametrically opposed views of Europe and France's place in the world at stake.

The National Front's Le Pen would close borders and quit the euro currency, while Mr Macron, who has never held elected office, wants closer European cooperation and an open economy.

According to an Elabe poll for BFM TV and L'Express, Mr Macron will get 62 per cent of the votes in the second round compared to 38 per cent for Ms Le Pen, an increase of three points for the centrist candidate compared to his projected score in the last Elabe poll.

The showing is among his best since nine other candidates were eliminated in the first round on April 23.

The survey was carried out after a rancorous final televised debate between the two contenders on Wednesday, which Mr Macron was seen as having won by French viewers, according to two recent polls.

A separate poll by Odoxa said a quarter of the French electorate was likely to abstain in Sunday's vote, many of them left-wing voters disappointed after their candidates missed reaching the runoff.

The projected abstention rate would be the second-worst for a presidential election runoff since 1965, underscoring the disillusionment of many voters at the choice they now face.

The turnout rate for the first round of the election was close to 78 per cent, according to the interior ministry.

The poll for Franceinfo radio showed 69 per cent of abstaining voters will do so reluctantly, refusing to choose between Mr Macron and Ms Le Pen. Many voted for the more leftist candidates eliminated in the first round.

A third of the supporters of defeated far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon, who placed fourth in the first round, said they were evenly opposed to Mr Macron and Ms Le Pen, according to the poll.

It also showed that voters found Mr Macron more convincing than Ms Le Pen in Wednesday's televised debate, confirming the general impression conveyed in earlier polls and reinforcing Mr Macron's status as the favourite to win on Sunday.
The closely-watched CEVIPOF poll shows Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen clinging to a narrow lead heading into the first stage of the election, with Le Pen recently becoming embroiled in a spat with the European Commission after refusing to appear on TF1 while there remained a Flag of Europe in the background.