President Emmanuel Macron and the far-right challenger Marine Le Pen meet tonight in a televised debate that could be decisive in the battle over who will govern France's next term.

Macron began the debate by recalling the crises that France has faced during his time as president, mentioning the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. 

- We can make our country stronger, we must improve the livelihoods of the French.

France will be stronger if we can handle the transition to a green economy, he said according to France 24.

"Another choice is possible"

According to France 24, Le Pen started with a gloomy rating for France during Macron's time. 

- Tonight I want to tell you that another choice is possible.

"I will be the president of freedom, sovereignty and security," Le Pen said.

Le Pen is behind Macron in opinion polls and for her the debate is a chance to turn public opinion in her favor at the last minute and convince voters that the far right in power for the next five years is the right way to go. 

For Macron, the challenge in the election sprint is to maintain the lead and to highlight that the economy is doing well to bring in voters who are dissatisfied with the development in the country. 

According to several polls, Macron has a clear lead, he gets the support of 55 percent of voters with Le Pen gets 45 percent, according to Politico's weighting of the opinion polls.

Many have not decided

But much can still happen ahead of Sunday's election.

Around 14 percent of voters will wait until after the TV debate to decide which candidate to vote for, while 12 percent say the debate will be decisive for whether they will vote at all.

This according to a survey that OpinionWay-Kea Partners has done for the newspaper Les Echos, writes Reuters.

The corresponding debate ahead of the 2017 presidential election was seen by over 16 million people, says SVT's European correspondent David Boati, who states that the debate is important.

- There are still many voters who in the end have not decided, not least those who want to go and vote at all.

Now it is a matter of getting excited, mobilizing and preferably not doing away with oneself, he says.

The debate started at 9 pm and lasted until 11.30 pm.