The first-round voting is over in France. President Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen are the two candidates for the upcoming French presidential election. The final voting would take place on Apr. 24.

It is said that three parties dominate French politics. They are the far-right, the liberal right, and the left. The leftist is urging their supporters to not vote for the far-right candidate, Le Pen.

Reports are saying that Le Pen has softened strategically her xenophobic attitude. She successfully hid her real political agenda that is xenophobic, anti-immigrant, and sexist as well. People are worried about the far-right strategies, and they want them to fail too.

In the second round of voting, everybody expected that President Emmanuel Macron would face Le Pen. For many years, from the far-right, two strong candidates would be facing each other. On the other hand, Jean-Luc Mélenchon is the leading candidate of the left. And Mélenchon’s party would challenge both the candidates of the right and the far-right parties.

Everyone is criticizing Le Pen for her admiration for Putin. And Macron is taking advantage of that by mentioning her involvement with Russian during the last election. Some are even saying that this year Le Pen borrowed financial help from Hungary as well. Macron would be benefited from Le Pen’s admiration for Putin, and it might become a crucial factor in the election. Macron has always been clear about his stand on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he even tried to stop it.

Macron recently said that Le Pen and her party, the National Rally, had been racist, though he never mentioned it in the last five years. Things are becoming intense every day in France. Candidates are trying their best to defame their counterparts continuously.

Though there are strong candidates, it seems that President Emmanuel Macron is most like to become president of France again. But there are doubts about his dominance this time. People believe he would not win the way he did in the presidential election of 2017. During that time, his claim was that he is not from the left or right. But now it is clear that he is from the right and has been a supporter of the neoliberal program. Because of that, for Macron, appealing to the leftist voters would be difficult.

So, the challenge for the French people, in this election is to make sure that the far-right loses. And at the same time, to make President Emmanuel Macron realize that he does not have the support of 2017 as well.