Centrist President Emmanuel Macron is seeking a second five-year term, but faces a strong challenge from the far right.
Polls close at 7 p.m. in most places and an hour later in some larger cities. By noon, just over a quarter of France's electorate had cast their ballot, slightly down from previous elections. France operates a manual system for elections: Voters are obliged to cast ballots in person, and they are hand-counted once voting closes.
Bundled up against an April chill, voters lined up to cast ballots at one polling station in southern Paris on Sunday before it opened. Once inside, they placed their paper ballots into envelopes and then into a transparent box, many wearing masks or using hand gel as part of COVID-19 measures.French President Emmanuel Macron gives a thumbs-up after voting for the first round of the presidential election on Sunday, April 10, 2022 in Le Touquet in northern France.
Macron for months looked like a shoo-in to become France's first president in 20 years to win a second term. But that scenario blurred in the campaign's closing stages as the pain of inflation and of pump, food and energy prices roared back as dominant election themes for many low-income households. They could drive many voters Sunday into the arms of Le Pen, Macron's political nemesis.
With populist Viktor Orban winning a fourth consecutive term as Hungary's prime minister days ago, eyes have now turned to France's resurgent far right candidates — especially National Rally leader Le Pen, who wants to ban Muslim headscarves in streets and halal and kosher butchers, and drastically reduce immigration from outside Europe. This election has the potential to reshape France's post-war identity and indicate whether European populism is ascendant or in decline.
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