France's Macron, Le Pen in final quest for votes after fiery debate

PARIS: French leader Emmanuel Macron and far-right rival Marine Le Pen on Thursday made a final push for votes in France's working-class heartlands after a pre-election debate from which the president was judged to have emerged on top.

But this time the margin looks far narrower. Le Pen is contending to be the first far-right leader of France, and Macron the first French president to win a second term since Jacques Chirac in 2002. Macron avoided"having the debate crystallise around his record and came out much more aggressively than expected", prominent political historian Jean Garrigues told AFP.

"Like a boa constrictor, Emmanuel Macron seemed to gradually tighten his grip around his opponent until she suffocated," it said. Le Pen was spending the day in the northern industrial region of Hauts-de-France - where she enjoyed strong support in the first round - winding up with a final campaign rally in the town of Arras.Macron sought to land a direct hit on Le Pen against the background of Russia's invasion of Ukraine by focusing on a loan her party had taken from a Czech-Russian bank ahead of the 2017 presidential election.

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