A little background info on Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron
Marine Le Pen, National Front (FN)
She took over the FN leadership from her father in January 2011 and came third in presidential elections the following year. She brought the party big electoral gains in regional elections in late 2015.
Opinion polls suggest she is neck and neck with Emmanuel Macron but unlikely to defeat him in the second round.
The Marine Le Pen story
In 2010, before being elected leader, Marine Le Pen compared Muslims praying in the street to the German occupation. But since 2011 she has softened her tone and the FN has also tried to build bridges with the Jewish community.
As the election approached her position hardened again, with a pledge to suspend all legal immigration while new rules are drafted. She also caused outrage by wrongly suggesting that France had no responsibility for the Paris round-up of 13,000 Jews deported in World War Two.
Hugh Schofield: Is France's National Front leader far-right?
Marine Le Pen, 48, trained as a lawyer and headed the FN's legal department. After years of fighting and losing French parliamentary elections, she was elected to the European Parliament in 2004 and remains an MEP, representing North-West France.
She is twice divorced with three children, and lives in the western suburbs of Paris.
What she wants:
- Negotiation with Brussels on a new EU, followed by a referendum
- "Automatic" expulsion of illegal immigrants and legal immigration cut to 10,000 per year following an immediate total moratorium
- "Extremist" mosques closed and priority to French nationals in social housing
- Retirement age fixed at 60 and 35-hour week assured
Emmanuel Macron, En Marche (On the Move)
At 39, he has a real chance of becoming France's youngest-ever president because polls suggest if he reaches the run-off on 7 May he would defeat Marine Le Pen.
He is not an MP and has never stood for election before but his political rise has been meteoric.
A brilliant student who went on to become an investment banker, Emmanuel Macron worked as economic adviser to President Hollande before taking up the post of economy minister in 2014.
He forged a reputation with his "Macron Law", a controversial reform bill that allowed shops to open more often on Sundays and deregulated some sectors of industry. He championed digital start-ups and prompted a long-distance bus market.
While a breath of fresh air for France's business community, his policies aroused opposition among the left of the governing Socialists.
But when he set up En Marche as "neither left nor right" in April 2016, his position in the Socialist government became increasingly untenable and he resigned before launching a presidential bid. He has attracted the support of veteran moderate François Bayrou as well as Socialist ex-Prime Minister Manuel Valls.
Mr Macron is married to his former French teacher Brigitte Trogneux, 20 years his senior, and has seven step-grandchildren.
What he wants:
- €50bn (£43bn; $53bn) public investment plan to cover job-training, exit from coal and shift to renewable energy, infrastructure and modernisation
- Reimbursement of full cost of glasses, dentures and hearing aids
- Big cut in corporation tax and more leeway for companies to renegotiate 35-hour week
- Cut in jobless rate to 7% (now 9.7%)
- Ban on mobile phone use in schools for under-15s and a €500 culture pass for 18 year olds
Emmanuel Macron's meteoric rise
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38220690
All opinion polls were suggesting Macron would be winning comfortablely if he reaches second round. Those defeated have endorsed their support to Macron.