French election: Macron, Le Pen and a political system under pressure

Who are the competitors?

Macron first formed his centrist party in 2016 during his first run for president.

He has poached politicians from the old center-left Socialist Party and the center-right Gaullist party to lead a technocratic government that he says will crack down on entrenched interest groups, revive the economy and cut unemployment. It is still a work in progress.

The leader of the far-right nationalist party, which grew out of the National Front, has sought to make the party brand less toxic and more electorally palatable since taking over in 2011 from his father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was notorious for racist and anti-Semitic comments.

Marine Le Pen largely retained the party’s hostility to immigration but stopped campaigning for France’s exit from the European Union.

She brought more discipline to the movement, both in language and dress, striving to make it look and sound more like a government-in-waiting.

Opinion polls suggest the National Alliance will win the largest share of votes, its best performance ever.

The left-wing coalition called for lowering the official retirement age to 60 from 62, overturning a law pushed by Macron to raise the retirement age to 64, as well as raising the minimum wage and restoring a wealth tax.

Whether it actually does all that during its term depends partly on which heavyweight becomes prime minister.

The movement’s members include the far left, represented by radical Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and more traditional social democrats, including former President François Hollande.

The Republicans, heir to the center-right tradition founded by Charles de Gaulle and continued by former presidents Jacques Chirac and Georges Pompidou, are in disarray.

When their leader, Eric Ciotti, called for cooperation with the National Alliance despite opposition from his party colleagues, they fired him, but Ciotti insisted on staying.

The party lags far behind its three main rivals in opinion polls but could still play a decisive role if no single party is able to secure a majority in parliament.