French election: Macron in pole position, Le Pen racing hard

A victory in Sunday's runoff vote would make Mr. Macron the first French president in 20 years to win a second term

President Emmanuel Macron is in the pole position to win reelection Sunday in France's presidential runoff, yet his lead over far-right rival Marine Le Pen depends on one major uncertainty: voters who decide to stay home.

A victory in Sunday's runoff vote would make Mr. Macron the first French President in 20 years to win a second term.

All opinion polls in recent days converge toward a victory for the 44-year-old pro-European centrist — yet the margin over his nationalist rival appears uncertain, varying from 6 to 15 percentage points, depending on the poll.

Polls also forecast a possibly record-high number of people who either vote blank or stay at home and do not vote at all in this second and final round.

The April 10 first-round vote eliminated 10 other presidential candidates. Who becomes France's next leader will largely depend on what people who backed those losing candidates do on Sunday.

The question is a hard one, especially for leftist voters who dislike Mr. Macron but do not want to see Ms. Le Pen in power either. A second term for Mr. Macron relies in part on their mobilization, prompting the French leader to issue multiple appeals to leftist voters in recent days.

"Think about what British citizens were saying a few hours before Brexit or (people) in the United States before Trump's election happened: ‘I’m not going, what’s the point?’ I can tell you that they regretted it the next day,” Mr. Macron warned this week on France 5 television.