Macron and Le Pen are expected to advance to the second round of elections, which will be of great importance to the EU as a whole. The results will start to be available after 9 pm Finnish time.
Turnout in the French presidential election has been slightly slower in the first hours of election day than in the previous elections in 2017.
By noon local time, just over 25 per cent of those eligible to vote had gone to the polls, three percentage points behind the pace of the last election.
Five years ago, the turnout in the first round of elections was finally 77.8 percent. The all-time low was reached in the 2002 election, when only 71.6% of eligible voters voted in the first round.
Polling stations opened in France from 8 am. Already yesterday, a vote was taken in the French overseas departments, such as the Caribbean and the Pacific.
Polling stations will close at 8 pm Finnish time at 9 pm, and earnings forecasts for French TV channels are expected immediately.
Incumbent president Emmanuel Macron, 44, is running for a second term. He would be the first French president to reach his second term since 2002, when Jacques Chirac won the election as incumbent president.
Even the pre-popular position of the center-liberal Macron has faltered in recent weeks as the far-right Marine Le Penin support has grown. In recent opinion polls, Le Pen has been just a few percentage points away from Macron.
Macron went to vote for his wife at lunchtime Brigitten with the beach resort of Le Touquet on the north coast of France. Le Pen, for his part, voted in the town of Henin-Beaumont in the north of the country, which is his strong base.
Many are dissatisfied with the candidates
According to polls, a significant proportion of voters have been uncertain about their choice. A 32-year-old actor in a Paris suburb Blandine Lehout told AFP on Sunday that none of this time’s candidates deserve his vote.
– For the first time in my life, I am not going to vote. I will be voting in the (June) parliamentary elections, but in this election I hate them all. They scare me, Lehout said.
Parisian Chloe for his part, he told the BBC that the candidates were too focused on talking about foreign policy.
– They do not talk about the most important things for us and our daily lives.
Parisian student Andy fears Le Pen ‘s victory, although not Macroninka’ s biggest admirer. He is dissatisfied, for example, with Macron’s handling of the yellow vest protests that shook France.
– There have been so many crises and for me as a student there have been a lot of reforms that have not been good, Andy told the BBC.
Before the Socialists voted Philippe Bridou The city of Perpignan in the south-west of France said it had changed its right to vote.
– Security is important, and so is immigration, and the left is not talking about it.
Le Pen has a better chance than 2017
Five years ago, Macron and Le Pen were at odds in the second round, and at the time, Macron took a crushing win with a percentage of 66.1 to 33.9. Now the fight would probably become smoother.
Macron has campaigned very little because his attention has been focused on the war in Ukraine in recent weeks. Le Pen, on the other hand, has sought to soften its image and talk more about traditional immigration themes, such as rising prices.
The election of the nationalist Le Pen as president would be a shock in international politics, revolutionizing French EU policy, among other things. In terms of effects, it could be compared to the British Brexit referendum as well Donald Trumpin election to the presidency of the United States.
The third most popular candidate in the latest polls is the far left Jean-Luc Melenchon.
France’s traditional big parties, center-right Les Republicains and the Socialists suffered backfires in the last presidential election, and their candidates are still out of the question for the second round.
Also a far-right TV journalist who received a lot of attention last year Eric Zemmour has lost its support.
The second round of elections will be held on April 24.