Sky News correspondents Adam Parsons and Dominique Waghorn are on their way to the French presidential campaign with Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen.
Two days before the decisive runoff, here is their opinion on the last push of the candidates.
Dominique Waghorn, International Affairs Editor, at Etaples
Marine Le Pen lags behind in the polls and cannot afford to be complacent. In this situation, you may think that she will take risks.
Instead, she plays it safe, staying where voters like her.
Image: The opponent is struggling to undermine Macron’s lead
Today, she was in a city that voted overwhelmingly in her favor in the first round of this election.
She preaches to the people here, revered in the Etaples market, hailed by many as a savior among the stalls with fresh fruit and bricks.
It was a predictably enthusiastic reception. But he will do little to restore her electoral status or find her the new voters she desperately needs.
Image: Ms. Le Pen was among the supporters at Etaples, near Boulogne
On the last day of the election campaign, Mrs Le Pen’s wheels seem to be turning. She has trouble gaining the strength needed to reduce Emmanuel Macron’s lead.
These are unpredictable unstable times that have brought surprises to other democracies.
But French sociologists are more accurate than many, and without a serious disorder they failed to anticipate, Macron seems confident of a comfortable victory.
By Adam Parsons, Europe correspondent at Figeac
Emmanuel Macron ended his election campaign in an atmosphere almost perfect French to be true.
Figac, in the Lot area of southern France, was bathed in sunshine, gleaming from his old sandy buildings in the market square. Around it is a soothing pastoral landscape. This is usually a quiet place; today – not so much.
Image: The president is well trained to like the crowd. Photo: AP
When he arrived in the heart of the city, there was a large crowd to meet him.
In fact, it was probably only four hundred or five hundred, but here, sandwiched between small streets and tall buildings, there was an oppressive crowd, and the noise echoed.
Macron liked him. Whatever you think of him as a politician, and he has his critics, he is a showman.
So we had all the familiar traits – big smiles, talking without notes, communicating with his audience.
Image: Where is Macron? The president was surrounded on the streets of Fijak
He was annoyed by a group of protesters who unfurled a banner protesting against privatization. Macron looked up at them and told them how happy they were to live in a democracy where, as he put it, they could “harass the president.”
In the middle of his speech, his jacket was taken off and his shirt sleeves rolled up.
This was followed by the call to protect the values of the republic, and then, cacophonously, came the national anthem and meaningfully an ode to the joy of Beethoven, the anthem of the European Union.
And the message of it all? Not only the script – for his competence in economics, his experience, his insight in foreign affairs, but also something less open.
Image: Mr Macron rolled up his sleeves for the last day of the campaign
It was a denouement, framed by the theme of reassurance – here, in a village with almost ridiculous French, the president assured his people that it was a safe choice, that he valued his country and that he would preserve its traditions.
Marine Le Pen, as he has always argued, is a danger to French values.
In fact, he said her threat to ban a hat worn by many Muslim women risked provoking a “civil war”. Sunday’s election, he told a crowd here, is a referendum on France’s commitment to democracy, secularism and unity.
He left the stage, but then spent years shaking hands, listening to questions from locals and smiling for photos. For him, the campaign is over.
It is up to France to decide whether to support continuity or radical change.
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