By Bond Robertson 
Incumbent President Emmanuel Macron is doing sonic fishing in the south of France. Marine Le Pen’s Challenger ran from one campaign rally to another in the north of the country. Early on Sunday, the polls opened in France.
In recent days, both candidates have sought to bring unsafe voters off the fence to the polling stations. Tonight, at 8 p.m., we will likely have an answer to who convinced the most voters.
- Follow the election live broadcast on NRK1 and nrk.no from 19.45.
despite of Macron wins the first round of the presidential election With 3 percentage points, nothing has been decided when the French will vote today for their preferred candidate.
According to figures from Politicos opinion poll Macron saw a turnout of about 55 percent in opinion polls, about 10 percentage points ahead of Le Pen, in the days between the first and second rounds of the elections.
Controversial father
The two final opponents are often portrayed as completely different in the media. Macron has been described as the class-pupil who became the “president of the elite”, while Le Pen wants to be seen as a politician for “ordinary people”.
Marine Le Pen was born into a very political family on August 5, 1968 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, west of Paris.
His father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, was for many years one of the most famous far-right politicians in Europe. led the National Front – The original name of Marine Le Pen’s party today is the leader of the National Assembly.
Like his father, Marine Le Pen and his party support the all-important immigration policy. Among other things, the National Assembly wants to cut social support for foreigners, ban the use of headscarves in public places, and limit the possibility of family reunification for immigrants. The party is also highly critical of the European Union.
Controversial father: Marine Le Pen is said to have been bullied at school because of her father, who led the National Front for nearly 40 years. The photo shows Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2019.
Photo: Jacques Demarthon/AFP
Marine Le Pen has said in interviews that she was bullied at school because she was the daughter of the controversial party leader in the far-right wing of French politics.
Marine is the youngest of three daughters Jean-Marie Le Pen had by his first wife, Beret Lalanes.
Dramatic bombing
In 1976, when Marine Le Pen was eight years old, the family home in Paris was bombed while the children were sleeping. The perpetrator has not been arrested, and the motive remains unknown, but the Le Pen family assumes that they were the target of the assassination.
Marine Le Pen stated this, along with an air of fear and torment from her fellow students and teachers, as important factors for her development during her upbringing.
Le Pen grew into politics. She trained as a barrister and worked as a barrister before entering politics full time.
The party leader has two marriages behind him and two children from his first wife.
List of school playing the piano
Emmanuel Macron was born on December 21, 1977 in Amiens, northern France.
His father, Jean-Michel Macron, is a professor of neurology, and his mother, Françoise Macron Nogues, is also a doctor.
When he was 16 years old, Macron won a public competition in the French language. He also took third place in piano at the Amiens Conservatory.
Macron received the French Baccalaureate at the famous Lycée Henri IV in Paris.
He also studied philosophy, political science and public administration.
Macron’s Wife: Emmanuel Macron is married to Brigitte Macron. She is 25 years older than him, and the two met when she was a teacher and he’s her student. So the relationship received a lot of attention in the French press.
Photo: Ludovic Marin/AFP
Macron is married to Brigitte Macron. She was his teacher when the two met at a high school in Amiens in the 1990s.
Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron married in 2007.
From a prestigious school to the Ministry of Finance
In the prestigious École Nationale d’Administration (ENA), he was in first class in his class of graduates «Leopold Senghor».
Since 2005, Macron has held the position of financial director of one of the departments in the Ministry of Finance. After working there, he worked at a liberal business research center in Paris.
In 2008, Macron received a position as an investor in the investment bank Rothschild. Two years later he became a partner in the company.
“Political Wonders”
Former President Nicolas Sarkozy discovered Macron’s political talent.
While in Rothschild, Macron was introduced to then-Prime Minister Manuel Valls and President Francois Hollande.
The latter received him as chancellor, and then Macron was appointed Minister of Trade and Industry in the Valls government.
Adviser: Emmanuel Macron was appointed as financial advisor to former President François Hollande in 2012.
Photo: Paul/Reuters
Macron was then a member of the Socialist Party. In 2016, he founded the party En Mache! And in the following year’s election, he ran as a presidential candidate – and won.
The 39-year-old Macron was seen as a “light blue” status candidate. Among other things, he promised to raise the retirement age in France from 62 to 65, which he has not yet implemented. Now the president says he will implement this policy if re-elected. He also wants tax cuts and welfare reform.
He took over the party and expelled his father
Macron’s rival, Marine Le Pen, took over the leader of the National Front in January 2011 after his father.
She ran in the 2012 French presidential election. At that time she placed third in the first round with nearly 18% of the vote.
In the EU and local elections in May 2014, the National Front became the largest political party in France.
After a terrible power struggle, Marine Le Pen took a strong stand against his father. After leading the National Front for nearly 40 years, Jean-Marie Le Pen was expelled from the party in August 2015.
Father and Daughter: Marine Le Pen with Father Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Photo: Lionel Sirono/AP
The daughter distanced herself from her father’s more extreme views, including statements that many French considered anti-Semitic.
Marine Le Pen tried to organize the party and make it “edible” for many French people.
But it has maintained its “party spirit” as an outsider-right party critical of immigration. In 2018, she and the rest of the party leadership changed the name from the National Front to the National Assembly.
Number two in 2017
After finishing third and out of the last round of the 2012 election, Le Pen did much better in 2017.
Then she reached the second round, but was beaten by Emmanuel Macron. He received 66.1 percent of the vote, 33.9.
Five years younger: The photo appears when Le Pen and Macron met in a televised debate on May 3, 2017.
Photo: Eric Weverberg/AFP
Many believed that she “fallen” in the debate on television and lost many potential voters.
Critics considered that she does not show herself from the “presidential side”, but on the contrary behaves hesitantly and sometimes violently.
Several commentators pointed out that Le Pen did much better in TV debate last WednesdayThe only controversy between Le Pen and Macron in this election campaign.
Putin is a stumbling block?
The Russian invasion of Ukraine also affected the French presidential campaign.
There was tension over whether the somewhat close relationship between Marine Le Pen and Vladimir Putin would create major problems for Le Pen. However, the result of the first round does not indicate this.
Close relationship: The cordial relationship between Le Pen and Putin does not appear to have weakened her significantly in the election campaign. The photo was taken in Moscow in 2017.
Photo: Mikhail Klimentyev / AP
It’s no secret that Le Pen took a loan to run for office from a Russian bank that has close ties to President Putin.
Marine Le Pen made it clear that she did not get a loan from a French bank, an explanation many voters would buy.
The fact that she was so quick to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine may also have contributed to many French not turning their backs on her.
Emmanuel Macron’s attempts to prevent Russia from going to war with Ukraine may not have had the effect he had hoped for. A picture of Macron sitting at Putin’s long white table in Moscow before the war began has been the subject of jokes on social media.
In Kremlin: Macron held talks with Putin in the Kremlin shortly before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Photo: – / AFP
Many French people wonder if Macron’s diplomacy has any bearing on Putin.
“Arrogant Besser to the Voice of the People”
After the televised debates before this year’s election and the previous one, President Macron has been criticized for his “top-down” behaviour. He struggles to get off his stomach like the slightly arrogant Beseroiers who represent France’s elite.
During the election campaign, Marine Le Pen tried to present herself as “the voice of the ordinary French woman and man”. Both Macron and Le Pen wanted to appeal to voters of the far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who is generally very dissatisfied with Macron’s policies.
Melenchon received 22 percent of the vote in the first round, and he urged his voters not to vote for Le Pen in the second, crucial election.
La Penn: The far-left candidate, Jean-Luc Melenchon, urged his voters not to vote for Marine Le Pen in the crucial election.
Photo: PASCAL GUYOT / AFP
According to Time magazine, there are clear similarities between those who supported Marine Le Pen in France and those who supported former President Donald Trump in the United States.
They both score high on dating “ordinary people”, preferring those who live outside the big cities.
On Sunday, it will be decided whether France will serve as its first female president, or whether Macron will be the first French president in 20 years to be re-elected.
Watch URIX on the French presidential election here.