Polling day
follows a rollercoaster campaign marked by scandal, repeated surprises and a
last-minute hacking attack targeting Macron, a 39-year-old former investment
banker who has never held elected office.
The run-off
vote pits the pro-Europe, pro-business Macron against anti-immigration, anti-EU
Le Pen, two radically different visions that underline a split in Western
democracies.
Le Pen, 48,
has portrayed the ballot as a contest between the "globalists"
represented by her rival -- those in favour of open trade, immigration and
shared sovereignty -- against the "nationalists" who defend strong
borders and national identities
She is
hoping to spring a shock result that would resonate as widely as Britain's
Brexit decision to withdraw from the European Union or the unexpected victory
of US President Donald Trump.
- 'World is watching' -
"The world is watching," said
32-year-old marketing worker Marie Piot as she voted in a working-class part of
northwest Paris.
"After
Brexit and Trump, it's as if we are the last bastion of the
Enlightenment," she said.
Le Pen cast
her ballot in her northern stronghold of Henin-Beaumont, where bare-breasted
Femen activists climbed scaffolding on a church and unfurled a banner
reading: "Power for Marine, despair
for Marianne," referring to the symbol of France.
Macron voted
in the northern seaside resort of Le Touquet where he has a holiday home.
Outgoing
Socialist President Francois Hollande, who decided in December against seeking
re-election, cast his ballot in his former electoral fiefdom of Tulle, in
central France.
Hollande,
who plucked Macron from virtual obscurity to name him economy minister in 2014,
said voting "is always an important, significant act, heavy with
consequences".
Turnout was
28.2 percent at midday, down from 30.7 percent at the same point in the last
presidential election in 2012, the interior ministry said.
Most polling
stations close at 1700 GMT, but those in big cities will stay open an hour
longer. First estimated results will be published at 1800 GMT.
-
'Democratic destabilisation' -
The last opinion polls showed Macron, who won
the first round vote last month, with a widening lead of around 62 percent to
38 percent for Le Pen before the hacking revelations surfaced on Friday
evening. An information blackout entered into force shortly after.
Hundreds of
thousands of emails and documents stolen from the Macron campaign were dumped
online and then spread by anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, in what the candidate
called an attempt at "democratic destabilisation".
France's
election authority said publishing the documents could be a criminal offence, a
warning heeded by traditional media organisations but flouted by Macron's
opponents and far-right activists online.
- No
traditional parties -
Whoever wins Sunday's vote it is set to cause
profound change for France, the world's sixth-biggest economy, a permanent
member of the UN Security Council and a global military power.
It is the
first time neither of the country's traditional parties has a candidate in the
final round of the presidential election under the modern French republic,
founded in 1958.
Macron would
be France's youngest-ever president and was a virtual unknown before his
two-year stint as economy minister, the launchpad for his presidential bid.
He left the
Socialist government in August and formed En Marche! (On the Move), a political
movement he says is neither of the left nor the right and which has attracted
250,000 members.
Macron
campaigned on pledges to cut state spending, ease labour laws, boost education
in deprived areas and extend new protections to the self-employed.
He is also
fervently pro-European and wants to re-energise the soon-to-be 27-member
European Union, following Britain's referendum vote last June to leave.
"France
is not a closed country. We are in Europe and in the world," Macron said
in an acrimonious face-to-face debate with Le Pen on Wednesday.
National Front leader Le Pen sees herself as
part of the same backlash against globalisation that has emerged as a powerful
theme in the United States and in recent elections in Britain, Austria and the
Netherlands.
She has
pledged to organise a referendum on withdrawing France from the EU and wants to
scrap the euro, which she has dubbed a "currency of bankers".
Le Pen has
also vowed to reduce net immigration to 10,000 people a year, crack down on
outsourcing by multinationals, lower the retirement age and introduce hardline
measures to tackle Islamist extremists.
Many voters
still see her party as anti-Semitic and racist despite her six-year drive to
improve its image.
Macron
topped the first round of the election on April 23 with 24.01 percent, followed
by Le Pen with 21.30 percent in a crowded field of 11 candidates.
The results
revealed Macron was favoured among wealthier, better educated citizens in
cities, while Le Pen drew support in the countryside as well as depressed areas
in the south and rustbelt northeast.
AFP
AFP
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