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France's two presidential candidates have traded their final punches ahead of Sunday's decisive runoff, with surveys suggesting that fear of a Marine Le Pen triumph outweighed disdain for Emmanuel Macron and his record.

Hours before a media blackout was set to begin at midnight, the incumbent and his far-right rival made their final arguments to undecided voters in radio interviews and walkabouts, with Le Pen claiming Macron's polling lead will be shown deceptive.

“Polls aren’t what decides an election,” the Rassemblement National (National Rally) leader said in Étaples in her northern stronghold, attacking the current president’s “condescension and arrogance” and insisting her policies held up under scrutiny.

“I call on people to form their own opinion, read what I propose,” she said, adding that Macron “calls millions of French voters ‘far right’; for him, it’s an insult. I’ve never expressed even the slightest hostility to his voters.” In a radio interview, she went further, saying Macron “does not like the French”.

Le Pen slammed her centrist rival’s unpopular plan to extend the retirement age to 65, saying it amounted to “a life sentence”, Le Pen said the choice facing French voters on Sunday was “fundamental. It is in the hands of the French people. It is Macron or France.”

Macron accuses Le Pen of racism 

Macron, for his part, accused Le Pen of attempting to split France and stigmatize Muslims by proposing to abolish the hijab in public. "The far-right feeds on fear and fury to build resentment," he explained. "It says that isolating segments of society is the solution."

Much of Le Pen's platform, including her pledge to prioritize French nationals for jobs and benefits, "abandon the foundational documents of Europe that safeguard persons, human rights, and liberties," the president stated on French radio.

Her ideas would bar non- and dual-nationals from numerous public-sector employment and limit their access to social benefits, as well as repeal automatic citizenship rights for children of non-nationals born in France and make naturalization more difficult.

Read more: Macron lost the French left, but now needs it for victory

 

He also slammed his opponent's plans to address the cost of living crisis, the main focus of her campaign, saying she "gives the impression she has an answer, but her answers aren't viable" – though he admitted Le Pen had "managed to draw on some of the things I didn't manage to do to pacify some of the people's anger."

The cost of living has emerged as the election's main campaign issue, with a sustained squeeze leaving many voters saying they are struggling to make ends meet despite support during the pandemic, fuel price caps, and data indicating that all but the poorest 5% of French households are better off than five years ago.

Elections turnout prediction 

Following Wednesday's fractious live TV debate, polls published on Thursday and Friday showed Macron's score stable or rising at between 55.5 percent and 57.5 percent, and Le Pen's at between 42.5 percent and 44.5 percent – a lead for the incumbent of between 10 and 14 points, but a far closer race than the 66 percent -34 percent score when the same two contestants met in the previous 2017 election.

Moreover, the data also indicate a strong public impression of Macron as an aloof, arrogant, and high-handed leader who is out of touch with ordinary people's issues. Many leftists, in particular, believe he has moved strongly to the right since taking office, despite his 2017 commitment to be "neither left nor right."

Turnout is expected to be between 72 and 74 percent, the lowest for a presidential runoff since 1969. The turnout for the second round of voting in 2017 was 74.56 percent. Easter holidays are starting in much of France, exacerbating an abstention percentage already inflated by the many French voters who feel politically orphaned and unrepresented by the two-round contest.

Read more: ‘Neither Macron nor Le Pen’: French protesters in Paris

 

Both candidates are attempting to win over the 7.7 million voters who supported left-wing firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the first round on 10 April and are now saying they are tempted to stay home or spoil their ballots.

Starting at midnight, neither candidate will be able to give interviews, distribute fliers, or hold campaign events until polling stations shut down on Sunday evening and preliminary results are available.

The polls will open at 8 am on Sunday and shut at 7 p.m. in most of France and at 8 p.m. in key cities. Voting begins in France's overseas territories on Saturday.