French voters will head to the polls on Sunday in the opening round of a presidential race which some experts believe might be closer than expected. Emmanuel Macron has a fight on his hands from far-right challenger Marine Le Pen, who has been galvanised by a slick election campaign

Forty-nine million people are eligible to decide which two of 12 candidates should take part in the run-off vote.

Speaking about Mr Macron and his election campaign in an Op-Ed piece, Fraser Myers, deputy editor at Spiked wrote: “Macron was expected to cruise confidently to victory.

“So convinced was he of his recoronation, he has barely spent any time on the campaign trail.

“Macron only officially declared his candidacy for re-election at the beginning of last month.

“Though there was never any doubt he would run again, the repeated delays were a symptom of his aloofness to the small, inconvenient matter of domestic politics.”

Mr Macron’s first rally of the campaign was held only last Saturday, a little under one week before the polls are due to open.

According to the reports, the president spent little time on the race, focusing instead on Europe’s reaction to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

When he came to power with a new party in 2017, Emmanuel Macron swept away the old allegiances, and the two big parties are still nursing their wounds.

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“He does not converse with voters, he lectures them.”

Voting in the big cities of Paris, Lyon and Marseille takes place from 08:00 to 20:00 local time (06:00-18:00 GMT).