Ahead of the first round of France's presidential election on Sunday, far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon is still trying to channel voters, this time using holograms. On the other side of the political spectrum, the far-right's Marine Le Pen continues to close the gap on incumbent Emmanuel Macron in the polls.

With three days to go until the first round of the presidential election, French voters are uninterested and undecided, leaving paper La Croix concerned about the country's future. Is alarm over a possible far-right victory a campaign strategy of Emmanuel Macron, or is far-right contender Marine Le Pen "more of a threat than ever before"? We also look at reactions in Burkina Faso to the trial over Thomas Sankara's 1987 assassination, as well as US sanctions on Vladimir Putin's daughters and French campaign goodies.

All of a sudden it's neck and neck in the race for the French presidential election. Emmanuel Macron was sitting pretty and on course for a second term. So how has April turned into the cruellest month for the sitting French president? Macron's second term is facing a real threat from far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, as polls show a closing of the gap between the incumbent and his main rival. Could he really lose?

All of a sudden it's neck and neck in the race for the French presidential election. Emmanuel Macron was sitting pretty and on course for a second term. So how has April turned into the cruellest month for the sitting French president? Macron's second term is facing a real threat from far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, as polls show a closing of the gap between the incumbent and his main rival. Could he really lose?

Warsaw requested an explanation from the French ambassador over comments made by the French president. The French president strongly criticized Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in a newspaper interview.

Just like in 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen will be facing each other in this year's presidential run-off. Many pollsters are predicting a tight race on April 24. Macron faces a serious challenge and needs to do more than simply tell people to vote for him in order to defeat Le Pen. That's the view of our guest Andrew Smith, a senior lecturer in contemporary French history and politics at Chichester University. He joined us for Perspective.

Incumbent Emmanuel Macron and his far-right challenger Marine Le Pen have both made it to the April 24 second round of the French presidential election. They have already embarked on a final fortnight of bruising campaigning ahead of a run-off whose outcome is far less certain than it was in 2017. FRANCE 24's Charles Pellegrin reports from Le Pen's surprise visit to a rural area. Plus, Europe editor Catherine Nicholson explains how this election could greatly impact the future of NATO and the EU.

And so begins a mad dash to the finish in the French presidential race. After a surprisingly sluggish start to the campaign, the first round served up the predicted outcome but also its fair share of surprises. The April 24 runoff is incumbent Emmanuel Macron's to lose, say the pollsters. But in a rematch of the 2017 second round, the centrist incumbent has his weaknesses that the far-right's Marine Le Pen astutely exploited in a campaign where she has been out pounding the flesh while Macron has been attending summits.

Facing a tougher-than-expected fight for re-election, Emmanuel Macron has hit the campaign trail at last. Since he and far-right nationalist rival Marine Le Pen qualified for the April 24 run-off, the incumbent has seemed eager to go into the field to explain his policies.

When French voters cast their ballots in the April 24 presidential run-off, the result will be watched well beyond our borders. For now, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen are serving up opposing visions of France's place on the world stage. He is for ratcheting up concerted EU sanctions against Vladimir Putin, while she is against any oil or gas embargo.

Amid surging inflation, the two remaining French presidential candidates are promising to help voters make a better living. Incumbent Emmanuel Macron is promising to triple the amount of a special tax-free bonus that employers can give workers. Meanwhile, far-right hopeful Marine Le Pen wants to give tax incentives to companies to raise the basic salary. Both proposals would come at a cost; we take a closer look. Plus, Elon Musk is offering to buy up all of the remaining shares in Twitter at a premium, saying the social media giant needs to go private to see effective changes.

The focus of the battle for the French presidential runoff is now turning to international strategy: FRANCE 24's Clovis Casali tells us all about Marine Le Pen's foreign policy plans. The far-right candidate warns against sending any more weapons to Ukraine and is calling for a rapprochement between NATO and Russia once Moscow's war in Ukraine winds down.