Déjà vu runoff likely for Macron, Le Pen

Suspense is the watchword in Sunday’s voting in the first round of the French presidential elections. Voters are choosing the top two among a dozen contenders, with a predicted low turnout that could help decide the race.

“I have the spirit of conquest rather than the spirit of defeat,” President Emmanuel Macron, a centrist, said in an interview with RTL radio on the final day of campaigning.

Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, running in her third presidential race, has consistently placed second behind Macron in polls. She appeared to close the gap even further according to latest polls, which have given a difference of between 1 and 6 percentage points between the two.

If the polls mirror election results, Macron and Le Pen would repeat the 2017 scenario, squaring off in a second round April 24. Macron won by a landslide five years ago, taking 66% of the vote to Le Pen’s 34%.

This time, polls forecast the outcome to be much closer.

Le Pen has expended much energy to take the edge off her National Rally party in order to make it more appealing to voters. Inflation has been the theme of her campaign this time, not Islam or migration.