At 08:00 on Sunday morning, polling stations opened in France for the second round of the country's Presidential election, as some 48.7 million French people will be able to vote for incumbent Emmanuel Macron or his challenger Marine Le Pen.
The polling stations across the country will remain open until 19:00, in the big cities until 20:00. In the overseas territories, the Presidential elections already kicked off on Saturday.
According to figures published by the French Ministry of the Interior, the voter turnout at noon was 26.41% – slightly lower than five years ago (-2%), but a bit higher than in the first round on 10 April (+1%).
During that first round on 10 April, Macron, who is the leader of the liberal centre party La République en Marche (LREM) received 27.84% of the votes, while Le Pen of the far-right and nationalist Rassemblement National (RN) got 23.15% of the votes.
In the meantime, Le Pen has already cast her vote, in her home town of Henin-Beaumont in northern France. Later in the afternoon, she will travel to Paris to follow the results and give her speech. Macron, too, has cast his vote in Le Touquet, in the north of France, accompanied by his wife Brigitte Macron, according to French media.
On Wednesday evening, both candidates faced off during a televised debate, which was considered especially important as many voters were still undecided or had no intention of voting.
The candidates argued about how to improve purchasing power, but they also discussed foreign policy – especially Russia and Europe – as well as pensions, climate, energy, youth and immigration. Macron was declared the winner of the debate, which was watched by 15.6 million people, according to polling results and evaluations by various experts.
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On Thursday (the day after the debate), polls gave Macron 55.5% to 56.5% of the vote – little to no difference from the numbers before the debate. While this seems reassuring for Macron at first glance, his entourage is still worried about undecided voters and a potentially large percentage of absentees.
"The race is not over yet," he said, referring to the United States presidential elections in 2016, when Hillary Clinton was expected to win, but it was still Donald Trump who got the keys to the White House.
"[Americans] woke up the next day with a hangover," Macron said on the BMF TV, adding that the situation in France today could be compared to the situation in the US then. "It is about a fundamental choice about the direction this country should take," he said.
