Elections in France: this is how the first round turned out 0:36 (CNN) — Emmanuel Macron faces Marine Le Pen in the second round. France’s presidential election will be a rematch of the 2017 contest, when far-right Marine Le Pen faced political newcomer Emmanuel Macron. Macron won that contest by almost two votes to one difference. But while the candidates remain the same, the 2022 race is shaping up to be a very different matter. Here is everything you need to know. Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen will face each other in a second round of the presidential elections on Sunday, April 24, a rematch of the 2017 elections. How do the elections work? To elect their new president, the French go to the polls twice. In the first, 12 candidates presented themselves. The candidates qualified for the electoral contest securing the support of 500 mayors and/or councilors from all over the country. Macron and Le Pen were the most voted, but since neither of them obtained more than 50%, and they face each other this Sunday in a second round. This is not the only national vote France faces this year: parliamentary elections will also be held in June. What dates do I need to know? Macron and Le Pen held a debate on the night of April 20, which was broadcast by the French networks France 2 and TF1. Jean-Luc Melenchon came in third place with 22% of the votes. Candidates cannot campaign on the eve of the vote, nor on the day of the election, and the media will be subject to strict reporting restrictions from the eve of the election until the polls close on Sunday at 8 a.m. pm (2 pm Miami time). What do the polls show? A much closer contest than the 2017 election. Both Macron and Le Pen increased their total percentage of votes in the first round this year compared to 2017, but the polls leading up to the first round, on April 10, show showed that Le Pen enjoyed a late surge of support in March. The Ifop-Fiducial polls, published on April 10, suggest that Macron would win the second round against Le Pen by just 51% to 49%. Macron’s lead has increased in the days since the results of the first round were known, but two weeks is a long time in politics, and much could change ahead of election day. Political analysts often say that the French vote with their hearts in the first round, and then vote with their heads in the second, which means that they first choose their ideal candidate and then choose the least bad in the second round. Macron saw this unfold in 2017. He and Le Pen got 24% and 21.3% of the vote in the first round and then 66.1% and 33.9% in the second, respectively. Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Marine Le Pen at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 24, 2017. To be re-elected, Macron will likely have to convince supporters of far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon , to support you. Melenchon came in third place with 22% of the votes. Later, Melenchon told his supporters that “we must not give a single vote to Mrs Le Pen”, but did not explicitly support Macron. Most of the losing candidates urged their supporters to support Macron to prevent the far right from winning the presidency. Eric Zemmour, a former right-wing television commentator known for his inflammatory rhetoric, urged his supporters to support Le Pen. What do the French expect? The unexpected. In early 2022, the elections looked set to be a major referendum on the growing popularity of the French far right. It has been 20 years since a French president has been re-elected, making the vote shaping up to be one of the country’s most closely watched political contests in decades. Then Russia invaded Ukraine. With Europe’s eyes on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bloody war, priorities have quickly shifted: Ammunition stockpiles, high-stakes diplomacy and even the threat of nuclear attack have entered the national debate. Inflation is the lynchpin of Le Pen’s advance in France 3:51 Macron took on the role of Europe’s statesman, steering him away from the election campaign, while Le Pen was forced to reverse her previous support for Putin. What else has changed in the last five years? The political landscape of France, for example. Macron’s election blew up the traditional center of French politics. In previous years, many of his voters would have flocked to the traditional center-left and center-right parties, the Socialists and the Republicans. But Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, a Socialist candidate, and Valérie Pécresse, a Republican candidate, failed to convince voters to abandon the centrist candidate already in office. Both got less than 5% in the first round. What else is there to know about Macron and Le Pen? Emmanuel Macron is a former investment banker and alumnus of some of France’s most elite schools. He was a political novice before he became president, and this is only the second political election he has run for. The central themes of the meeting between Putin and Macron 1:06 But he is no longer a newcomer and comes with a mixed record. His ambitious plan to strengthen the autonomy and geopolitical weight of the European Union earned him respect abroad and at home, although his attempts to win over Donald Trump or to prevent the agreement on AUKUS submarines, and his unsuccessful diplomatic efforts to avoid war in Ukraine could be considered failures. Macron’s domestic policies are more divisive and less popular. His handling of the gilets jaunes movement, one of France’s longest-running protests in decades, was widely criticized, and his record on the Covid-19 pandemic is inconclusive. Macron’s signature policy during the crisis — requiring citizens to show proof of vaccination in order to lead normal lives — helped push up vaccination rates, but ignited a minority opposed to his presidency. Before the first round of these elections, Macron refused to debate with his opponents and has barely campaigned. Although his leading position in the race has never really been threatened, experts believe his strategy has been to avoid political fights as long as possible to keep the focus on his image as the most presidential of all. candidates. Marine Le Pen is the most recognizable figure of the French extreme right. She is the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded the National Front, the predecessor of Le Pen’s current political party. The young Le Pen has tried to change the image of the party, which has long been seen as racist and anti-Semitic. France: nationalism vs. globalization 10:09 This is your third attempt at the presidency. This year and in 2017, she beat her father’s record in the first round of elections. In 2017, Le Pen campaigned as France’s answer to Trump: a right-wing arsonist who vowed to protect France’s forgotten working class from immigrants, globalization and the technology that was making their jobs obsolete. Since then, she has abandoned some of her most controversial political proposals, such as leaving the European Union. But overall, her economic nationalist stance, her views on immigration, her skepticism about Europe, and her position on Islam in France — she wants to make it illegal for women to wear headscarves in public – They have not changed. “Stopping uncontrolled immigration” and “eradicating Islamist ideologies” are the two priorities of her manifesto. However, Le Pen has tried to soften her tone, especially around Islam and the European Union after Brexit. Instead, she has campaigned hard on pocketbook issues, promising measures she says will bring between 150 and 200 euros ($162-216) into the coffers of every household, including a promise to abolish the tax on sales of 100 household items. The French, between Macron and Le Pen 4:29 The strategy seems to have worked. Le Pen’s performance in the first round of the 2022 presidential election was her best result in the three times she has run. What are the main problems for French voters? The cost of living is one of the main problems of the French electorate this year. Faced with the economic fallout from the pandemic, high energy prices and the war in Ukraine, voters are feeling the pinch, despite generous support from the government. While financial pressures may be insufficient to whitewash the extremism of some candidates in the minds of voters, they may push some to seek unorthodox answers to their problems. The fighting in Ukraine is a far cry from the bistros and cafes of France, but the conflict is certainly on the minds of voters. The last week of March, close to 90% of the French were worried about the war, according to Ifop. Considering the spotty record of her opponents in taking on Putin, this has likely worked in Macron’s favor so far. Marine Le Pen’s visit to Trump Tower in New York 1:12 The environmental crisis was notably absent from the first-round debate. Although the importance of climate protection is gaining ground around the world, it is less of a concern in France, which will get 75% of its electricity needs in 2020 from nuclear power, according to the French Environment Ministry. Most of the candidates in the first round supported the type of nuclear development that Macron has already announced, so there is little divergence on this issue. However, Macron and Le Pen have argued over wind and solar energy. Le Pen argues that both are expensive and inefficient – she also says that wind turbines have damaged the landscape of the traditional French countryside – so she wants to remove subsidies for both. Macron wants to continue investing in both technologies. The campaigns of Macron and Le Pen promise two very different visions for the future of France. Macron vows to move forward with a globalized, free-market-focused France at the helm of a powerful European Union. Le Pen wants to upend the status quo with protectionist economic policies and a renewal of Paris’ relations with its allies and adversaries. But in the end, the choice may simply come down to which candidate France dislikes least: the president, who is seen as elitist and out of touch, or the candidate best known for her fiery rhetoric on Islam and her support of authoritarians. With information from Elias Lemercier.