This Sunday, France will make the preliminary decision on who will rule the Elysée Palace in the next five years.

Incumbent Emmanuel Macron is the favorite in the first ballot, but his lead over right-wing populist Marine Le Pen has shrunk noticeably.

The candidate of the left "Union populaire", Jean-Luc Mélenchon, is on the rise.

The biggest element of uncertainty is the indecisiveness of the 48.7 million eligible voters.

You have the choice between twelve candidates.

The opinion research institute Ifop has determined that almost a quarter (24 percent) of voters could still change their mind.

The pollsters at Sciences Po (Cevipof) speak of a third undecided.

According to Ipsos, 28 percent of eligible voters are unsure of their voting decision.

72 percent say they want to vote.

Michael Wiegel

Political correspondent based in Paris.

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In Perpignan, her southernmost electoral stronghold on the Mediterranean, Le Pen let her supporters celebrate her with shouts of "Marine Présidente".

It was the last election rally by the right-wing populist, who, according to the latest polls, can expect 23 to 24 percent of the vote.

Macron, who could get 27 to 28 percent, warned on Friday about "the lies" of his rival.

Her program prepares the exit from the EU, "even if she no longer says so clearly," Macron told the newspaper "Le Parisien".

Like Poland and Hungary, she is planning a legal dispute with the EU.

Macron described Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki as Le Pen's campaign assistant and called him a "right-wing extremist anti-Semite".

Warsaw then summoned the French ambassador.

Macron was responding to Morawiecki's criticism of his phone calls with Putin.

The Polish Prime Minister had said that no one had telephoned Hitler either.

“Germany has made us dependent on Russian gas”

In a radio interview on Friday on RTL, Macron criticized the fact that Le Pen's Rassemblement National party in the EU Parliament had failed to vote on increased sanctions against Russia.

Macron expressed regret that he had offended the French with "spontaneous statements" in recent years.

"I have never looked down on the French because I owe them everything," Macron said.

After his radio talk, he decided to go on an impromptu stroll through the market in Neuilly-sur-Seine, the upper-class suburb west of Paris where former President Nicolas Sarkozy began his career as mayor.

Sarkozy is expected to call for Macron's election after the first round.

So far, Le Pen has shrugged off criticism for her cliques in the Kremlin.

Your party still has to repay a loan to a bank close to the Kremlin.

The current election campaign is being financed by a Hungarian bank, Viktor Orbán is said to have brokered it.

She condemned the war of aggression against Ukraine, but at the same time pointed out Germany's harmful role in the EU.

"Germany has made us dependent on Russian gas," she criticized on radio station RTL.

"I will restore France's energy sovereignty and leave the European electricity market," she announced.

She has repeatedly accused President Macron of having blindly submitted to the wishes of the federal government when he had the nuclear power plant in Fessenheim closed.

On France Info, Le Pen said,

she defends a "reasonable position" towards Russia.

"It is in our interest that Russia does not ally itself even more closely with China," she said.

The left-wing populist Mélenchon, who also attracted attention due to his closeness to Putin, is hoping for a surprise win in the first ballot.

According to polls, he can count on 17 to 18 percent of the votes.

The presidential candidate Christiane Taubira, who failed early on, made a recommendation for him on Friday.

The far-right candidate Éric Zemmour had his picture taken while praying in front of the altar of the Sainte-Clotilde basilica in Paris.

The annual fair for political leaders takes place in the church.

Zemmour is hoping for a hidden pool of voters that will enable him to qualify for the second ballot.

Right-wing candidate Valérie Pécresse, already eyeing a possible defeat, said she would not make a recommendation for the second ballot on April 24.

According to polls, she has to reckon with a single-digit result.

The candidate from the former Socialist ruling party, Anne Hidalgo, is even worse off with an expected result of two percent.

The green candidate Yannick Jadot can count on five percent.

In polls for the second ballot, a neck-and-neck race between Le Pen and Macron is emerging.

The traditional television duel is scheduled for April 20th.

In the event of a runoff between Macron and Mélenchon, the incumbent would have good prospects for a second term.