The first round of the French presidential elections will be held on the tenth of April, and in the event that no candidate achieves a large majority, the two contenders who received the largest number of votes will participate in a run-off two weeks later.
Twelve candidates were able to enter the race by obtaining the 500 signatures needed from local officials to qualify for the polls.
Four candidates are competing to win the presidential seat, but the elections in essence revolve around the conflict between incumbent President Emmanuel Macron and the right.
Despite losing the 2017 elections to Macron, Marine Le Pen, the far-right candidate, returns to the competition again, within a party that has been renamed in a new, less extreme way.
But Le Pen's biggest challenger is controversial far-right candidate Eric Zemmour of the Recovery Party, a man with anti-Islam and anti-immigrant views who has vowed to fight for French identity, and whose provocative ideas have sparked protests in some parts of France.
While far-right candidates focus on issues of immigration, identity and security, observers point to the waning influence of the French left.
Hate speech against Muslims
With the presidential elections approaching, many Muslims in France are under pressure, and observers believe that the far-right's anti-Islam rhetoric increases the risk of division and the growth of hatred in France.
The Dean of the Grand Mosque of Paris, Shams El-Din Hafez, confirms that the Muslim community in France is concerned with every election campaign, because for several years the election campaigns have been an occasion to criticize Islam and Muslims, indicating that the situation is dangerous for the Muslim community this time.
According to Shams El-Din Hafez, there are candidates who openly declare that they will cut between the French state and the Muslim community, and deal with Muslims as citizens with written documents, as one of the candidates says, describing the situation as worrying for Muslims.
Nadia Lazouni (French journalist and presenter of Algerian origin) reflects what Muslims are exposed to in France, and says that she received threatening letters at her home, forcing her to leave her apartment.
Nadia adds that the reason for her threat is because she chose to wear the hijab and defends freedom of belief.
As for the French-Palestinian composer Bassam Gibran, he says that France has opened its doors for him and his family, and that he will be elected in the next poll because politics has an impact and is important to him as a Palestinian and a Frenchman, and he is waiting for the new French president to change for a better life.
The issue of immigration is also one of the most widely discussed topics among the candidates for the French presidential elections, and a number of candidates take tough positions on the issue of immigration.
According to Florence Portley, a spokeswoman for the candidate, Valerie Berkes, there are real refugees because of the conflicts, and France should help them, such as the Ukrainians, Afghans and Syrians, noting that the candidate Eric Zemmour - for example - completely refused to welcome the Ukrainians.
On the other hand, there are fears in France about the challenges left by the war in Ukraine, especially the high cost of living, and David Giroud, a spokesman for the left-wing presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, says that the French need democratic reform.