The race to be the next president of France enters the final stretch

THERE WERE 12 candidates to pick from, but in the end the French chose the same presidential finalists as in 2017. In the first round of voting on April 10th, Emmanuel Macron, the centrist president, came top, with almost 28%. Marine Le Pen, a populist nationalist, came second with 23%. In the run-off in 2017 Mr Macron beat Ms Le Pen by a resounding 66% to 34%. When voters return to the polls on April 24th to choose the next president, the result is likely to be far closer.

Three features of the vote stand out. First, Mr Macron drew 1m more votes than in 2017, pushing his score four points higher to the best first-round result for an incumbent president since François Mitterrand in 1988. Mr Macron may be unloved, but, partly thanks to his competent management of the economy, the pandemic and European affairs, his approval rating is over 40%—higher at the end of his term than his two predecessors, François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy (though neither of those got a second term).