Presidential candidates are stepping up their campaign efforts on the second last day on the hustings, with media appearances, regional trips and final rallies ahead of Sunday's first-round vote that has seen the gap narrowing between the two favourites, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen.
The 12 contenders for the Elysée Palace have two major challenges before the official end of campaigning on Friday at midnight.
The first is to mobilise their supporters amid fears that abstention rates could exceed the record set back in 2002, at 28.4 percent. The second is to engage with France's many undecided voters, who represent one third of the electorate.
Sunday's polls come as the war in Ukraine and its repercussions direct impact the daily lives of French voters amid a surge in energy and food prices.
They also comes against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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1⃣L’intention de vote au 1er tour
E. Macron : 27%
M. Le Pen : 23,5%
JL. Mélenchon : 17,5%
Résultats complets ci-après pic.twitter.com/rfrjuW8b1a
The incumbent Macron – who entered the campaign late following his efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine crisis – is still the favourite, with around 27 percent of voting intentions in the first round.
He is expected to win in the second round according to the most recent polls.
Macron has indicated he wants to tie pensions to inflation "from this summer", while reaffirming that his controversial pension reform should be accomplished "in the autumn".
He has stated that his objective is to "consolidate our lead, to prevent her [Marine Le Pen] from coming out ahead in the first round."
Time to get serious
One official from within Macron's re-election team is quoted as saying: "It is important to realise that if she were elected, Marine Le Pen ... would have to manage a war and a major crisis.
"We are talking about serious things here. We will have real arguments about her programme," the official said, adding her economic plan would be tantamout to "fiscal bludgeoning".
On the campaign trail, Macron has promised to lower taxes and a return to full employment.
But, the political sparring between the two rounds, a possible Macron versus Le Pen rematch of 2017, is expected to be very aggressive.
For her part, the far-right candidate – who has worked hard to remodel her image, even if the National Rally's platform remains as "radical as ever" on migration and institutional fronts – is holding her last meeting in the party's biggest stronghold, in Perpignan this Thursday.
- French Presidential Elections 2022 - The candidates and the policies - Part 1
- French Presidential Elections 2022 - The candidates and the policies - Part 2
The race to the bottom, despite Mélenchon's momentum
Having stepped up a gear in the polls in recent days – holding around 22 percent of voter intentions – Le Pen aims to mobilise a largely working class electorate as the threat of mass abstention looms.
This comes as, far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has been on the rise in voting intentions over the last few days – with around 16 percent is also working hard to get himself into the second round.
For the leader of France Unbowed: "It's not just a question of the political will of the people ... we've got a lot of people who are interested in this kind of thing."
Meanwhile, centre-right Les Républicains candidate Valérie Pécresse and her far-right rival Eric Zemmour are both hovering around 9 percent in the latest polls.
Both are fighting a fierce battle for a regrouping of their respective political base.
Pécresse is due to hold her final public meeting in Lyon this evening, while Zemmour's final rally takes place in Paris.
For the candidates that are polling under the fateful 5 percent mark – which determines the reimbursement of campaign expenses – the Communist Party contender Fabien Roussel will be hosting his final gathering in Lille; Socialist candidate Anne Hidalgo in Rouen and, for anti-capitalist nominee Philippe Poutou, he holds his last rally in the southern city of Toulouse.
For their part, the Socialist Party are focusing more and more on the post-presidential period.
According to Hidalgo's campaign team: "It's not just a question of the party's appeal, it's also a question of taking stock of François Hollande's five-year term," who has accepted that the Paris mayor's support has stagnated at between 2 and 3 percent in the polls.
