By Ingrid Melander

PARIS (Reuters – France’s presidential elections are underway Sunday. The far-right candidate Marine Le Pen is threatening President Emmanuel Macron’s reelection prospects.

Even though opinion polls had been pointing to a win for Macron’s pro-European Union centrist, it was only weeks ago that they were wrong. He is boosted by active diplomacy in Ukraine and a strong economic recovery. The weakness of an opposition are also reasons.

However, his late entry to the campaign and the focus he placed on an unpopular plan that would increase retirement age has hurt his ratings along with the steep rise of inflation.

Le Pen, an anti-immigration and eurosceptic far right, has been touring France with confidence, smiling, her fans chanting, “We will Win!” We will prevail! Her confidence has increased after a long focus on cost-of-living issues for months and the significant drop in support she received from Eric Zemmour, her far-right rival.

While opinion polls continue to show Macron winning the first round of the election and Le Pen taking the second, several surveys suggest that the margin for error is still within their reach.

The voting begins at 8 AM (0600 GMT) until 1800 GMT when the exit polls will be released. These polls can be very reliable in France.

Le Pen said to her cheering supporters at Thursday’s rally, “We are ready” and “The French are with me”. She asked them to cast their ballot to ensure she delivers “the fair punishment that those who have wrongly governed us deserve.”

Macron, 44 years old and currently in office from 2017, spent his last days campaigning to prove that Le Pen’s programme had not changed despite all her efforts to improve her image and her National Rally Party’s.

He told Le Parisien that his fundamentals had not changed. “It’s a racist program that seeks to divide society, and it is extremely brutal.”

Le Pen denies racism claims and states that her policies will be beneficial to all Frenchpeople, regardless of where they come from.

RUNOFF RISKS MACRON

If Macron and Le Pen win the runoff, Trump faces an issue: Many left-wing voters told pollsters they will not vote for Macron, as in 2017.

Macron must persuade voters to vote for him again in the second round.

The Sunday vote will reveal who the late undecided voter will choose and whether Le Pen (53), can surpass opinion poll projections and emerge as the winner in the first round.

Jean-Daniel Levy from Harris Interactive, a Harris Interactive pollster, stated that “Marine Le Pen is never so close to winning an election as this,” Jean Daniel Levy said about Le Pen’s third campaign at the Elysee Palace.

Jean-Luc Melenchon’s hard-left supporters, who are third in opinion polls according to Jean-Luc Melenchon’s supporter, hopes for another surprise and has called upon left-wing voters from all backgrounds to vote for their candidate and get him to the second round.

Macron and Le Pen both agree that the result is open to all.

Le Pen said to supporters, “Everything’s possible.” Macron had earlier advised his followers that a Le Pen win was not impossible.

He said, “Look at the events with Brexit and other elections. What seemed impossible actually occurred.”