Emmanuel Macron holds a narrow lead in the vote for France's next president. Photo / 123RF
Emmanuel Macron holds a narrow lead in the vote for France's next president. Photo / 123RF
A 39-year-old former investment banker who built his own political movement is narrowly leading the opinion polls as the French republic heads to vote for its next president.
Emmanuel Macron, a former minister in Francois Hollande's Socialist government who quit to form his own party, En Marche! (Onwards!), holds the narrowest of leads against the hard-Right firebrand Marine Le Pen, the hard-Left communist Jean-Luc Melenchon, and the scandal-plagued conservative Republican Francois Fillon, News.com reports.
While there are 11 candidates vying for the keys to the Elysee Palace, the fact four of them have a realistic chance of success has set up an electrifying contest that will see the top two go to a run-off vote in May, with Macron and Le Pen the most likely to go through to the second round.
Macron is the photogenic son of a doctor and a neurology professor, who made millions as an investment banker and married his schoolteacher, who is 20 years older than him.
Emmanuel Macron (left) leader of the En Marche! (Onward!) movement is campaigning on improving schools and the health system. Photo / AP
He has been the favourite for months, after the early leader Fillon was found to have paid more than $1.2 million in taxpayer funds to his Welsh-born wife Penelope and two of his children to have worked for him.
But a late surge from Melenchon, some last-minute stumbles from Le Pen (who claimed the French government had no role in deporting Jewish citizens to the Nazis), and Fillon's stubborn refusal to let the fact he has been indicted over misuse of public funds by paying his family affect his campaign, have made the contest too close to call.
Last week, the centre-Left Macron stood before 20,000 cheering supporters at a rally in a stadium in Paris, condemning his fellow candidates as the crowd belted out the revolutionary war cry that is the French national anthem La Marseillaise ("Arise children of the fatherland! The day of glory has arrived!")
"What has been proposed to the French in the last 20 years is not liberation or reconstruction, but a slow, unavowed acceptation of unemployment, state impotence and social breakdown," he declared.
Across town, the National Front's Le Pen was holding a rally of her own, telling 5000 chanting supporters at a concert hall: "I will protect you. My first measure as president will be to reinstate France's borders."
At the same time, Melenchon, who also founded his own political movement, called Unsubmissive France, was making his way down a Parisian canal on a barge, denouncing the European Union, free trade and denouncing bankers as parasites as his supporters cheered wildly from the river bank.
He appeared at rallies elsewhere in the country as a hologram.
It couldn't be further from the dour, colourless trudge of the last Australian election campaign.
But will the colour and excitement of the campaign be enough to bring the French voters out in support?
Voting is not compulsory in France, although French presidential polls generally attract a quite high voter turnout of more than 80 per cent.
The polls are showing one-third of voters are yet to make up their minds, and experts are tipping a large number of the country's 46 million registered voters might not bother turning out.
This is despite the future of France as a member of the European Union hanging on the election result.
Le Pen and Melenchon would both likely lead the country to a Frexit, while Macron is enthusiastically pro-EU, and Fillon is broadly supportive.
All opinion polls in the past fortnight have had Macron and Le Pen virtually even, with Melenchon and Fillon trailing slightly, but all are within the margin of error.
Bloomberg analysed a composite of all the polls and concluded Macron was running at 23 per cent and Le Pen at 22.3 per cent, with Fillon and Melenchon both on 19.5 per cent.
Marine Le Pen holds progressive views on same-sex marriage and abortion. Photo / AP
THE CANDIDATES:
Emmanuel Macron, 39
Young, handsome and charismatic, the former investment banker and Socialist minister is pitching to the political centre-left.
The Obama-esque T-shirt wearing leader of the En Marche! (Onward!) movement is campaigning on a positive future - including improving schools and the health system, and tackling unemployment.
He supports open-door migration policies.
He is married to his former schoolteacher, and is stepfather to her three children.
An experienced political operative and leader of the hard-right Front National, Le Pen is campaigning on restricting Muslim migration, and has promised a "Frexit referendum" on whether France should leave the European Union.
She is not strictly a conservative and holds progressive views on same-sex marriage and abortion.
She is a divorced mother of three and lives with her partner, a senior official with Front National.
Francois Fillon, 63
A former prime minister, Fillon is the candidate for the centre-right Republicans and is a classic economic conservative, promising reforms to boost France's stagnant economy, including slashing the public service.
Badly damaged by "Penelopegate," the scandal over his decision to use taxpayer funds to pay his wife Penelope and two of children 900,000 euros (AU$1.2 million) to work for him.
He and his Welsh-born wife have five children.
Jean-Luc Melenchon, 65
After being given no chance, he is racing up the opinion polls in the final weeks of the campaign.
The hard-Left candidate stood for the presidency in 2012 under a communist platform.
He advocates wealth-redistribution, expanding social welfare, and has called for a 100 per cent wealth tax. He is a fan of new media technologies and appeared at a rally in the form of a hologram.
