France Votes: An Hour-by-Hour Guide to the Presidential Election
- Centrist Macron takes on nationalist Le Pen in runoff
- Macron leads by more than 20 points as campaign concludes
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France goes to the polls on Sunday for the final round of the presidential election, with Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen vying to be the country’s next head of state. After the candidates from France’s traditional parties were eliminated in the first round, the most dramatic election campaign in the 59-year history of the Fifth Republic comes down to a stark choice between an independent centrist promising a renewal of European alliances and a nationalist who wants to pull out of the euro and erect barriers on the borders to restrict trade and immigration.
Here’s a brief rundown of what happens when, in Paris’s time zone: