Paris: French President Francois Hollande on Saturday promised a response to the hacking of centrist presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron's campaign following the publication online of thousands of stolen emails and documents.

"We knew that there were these risks during the presidential campaign because it happened elsewhere. Nothing will go without a response," he told AFP during a visit of a cultural institute in Paris.

"If there has been any interference or appropriations, there will be procedures which will begin," he said, adding: "We need to let the investigations happen."

France's electoral commission has warned French journalists not to reveal the contents of the hacked messages on the last day before the election when no campaigning is authorised.

The documents spread on social media just before midnight on Friday in what Macron's team termed an attempt at "democratic destabilisation, like that seen during the last presidential campaign in the United States".

Hollande added that "since we learned that there are these operations, that there are these threats, we have been extremely vigilant."

He said he was unable to say whether it was an attempt at destabilising the election, as alleged by Macron's team.

"I can't say," he said, speaking at the Arab World Institute while accompanied by the king of Morocco, Mohammed VI.</s>An interior ministry official declined to comment, citing French rules that forbid any commentary liable to influence an election, which took effect at midnight on Friday.

The presidential election commission said in statement that it would hold a meeting later on Saturday after Macron’s campaign informed it about the hack and publishing of the data.

It urged the media to be cautious about publishing details of the e-mails given that campaigning had ended, and publication could lead to criminal charges.

Comments about the email dump began to appear on Friday evening just hours before the official ban on campaigning began.

The ban is due to stay in place until the last polling stations close Sunday at 6pm GMT.

Opinion polls show independent centrist Macron is set to beat National Front candidate Le Pen in Sunday’s second round of voting, in what is seen to be France’s most important election in decades. The latest surveys show him winning with about 62 % of the vote.

Former economy minister Macron’s campaign has previously complained about attempts to hack its emails, blaming Russian interests in part for the cyber attacks.

On April 26, the team said it had been the target of a attempts to steal e-mail credentials dating back to January, but that the perpetrators had failed to compromise any campaign data.

The Kremlin has denied it was behind any such attacks, even though Macron’s camp renewed complaints against Russian media and a hackers’ group operating in Ukraine.

Vitali Kremez, director of research with New York-based cyber intelligence firm Flashpoint, told Reuters his review indicates that APT 28, a group tied to the GRU, the Russian military intelligence directorate, was behind the leak. He cited similarities with US election hacks that have been previously attributed to that group.

APT28 last month registered decoy internet addresses to mimic the name of En Marche, which it likely used send tainted emails to hack into the campaign’s computers, Kremez said. Those domains include onedrive-en-marche.fr and mail-en-marche.fr.

"If indeed driven by Moscow, this leak appears to be a significant escalation over the previous Russian operations aimed at the US presidential election, expanding the approach and scope of effort from simple espionage efforts towards more direct attempts to sway the outcome," Kremez said.</s>French president-elect Macron to supporters: Europe and the world want us to defend enlightenment, freedom.</s>U.S. lawmakers are drawing a parallel between the recent hack of French presidential hopeful Emmanuel Macron's campaign emails to the hack that affected Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton Hillary Rodham ClintonCentrist Macron wins French presidential election Martha Stewart appears to flip off Trump photo Buffett: GOP healthcare plan a ‘huge tax cut for guys like me’ MORE's campaign as she ran for president in the 2016 election. Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are blaming Russia for the attacks.

A large archive of what are allegedly Macron campaign emails were leaked online Friday, just two days before the Sunday election. The Macron campaign previously claimed Russia tried to hack their emails, an allegation the Kremlin strongly denies but which has heightened allegations Russia was also behind the recent leak.

Macron is the centrist candidate in the race, while his populist, right-wing competitor Marine Le Pen has drawn comparisons to President Trump.

Clinton has blamed her own loss in the presidential election in part on the leaked emails, which she said "raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me." U.S. intelligence officials have indicated that the Clinton hack came from Russia.

"Russia, again," Sen. John Cornyn John CornynCollins on all-male healthcare working group: 'The leaders obviously chose the people they want' Congress compares French presidential candidate email hack to US Feinstein slams all-male group of senators working on ObamaCare repeal MORE (R-Texas) tweeted, sharing the Reuters report on Macron's hack.

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) also denounced Russia for attempting to influence multiple elections. In a tweet, he called for allies to support one another.

Rep. Adam Schiff Adam SchiffCongress compares French presidential candidate email hack to US Top House Dem calls on Trump to 'forcefully' respond to Macron hack Top Intel Dem: Hacking of French candidate 'a nightmare scenario' MORE (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, which is leading the U.S.-Russia probe, noted that hackers are allegedly mixing fake documents with real ones during their public release.

Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) implied Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin's successful interference in the U.S. election "emboldened" him to try to meddle in the elections of another Western democratic state.

The Macron campaign called the leaks a "massive and co-ordinated hack" in a statement reported by Reuters.

"The En Marche! Movement has been the victim of a massive and co-ordinated hack this evening which has given rise to the diffusion on social media of various internal information," the statement said.</s>The mandate of outgoing Socialist president François Hollande officially ends at midnight on Sunday, May 14th, and he is expected to vacate the Élysée earlier that day.

On Monday, May 8th, interior minister Matthias Fekl will officially announce the result of the presidential election. The first results, which came in at 8pm French time (7pm Irish time) on Sunday, are only estimations based on the initial count from several hundred polling stations that closed an hour before.

The handover of power takes place next weekend. The ceremony follows a well-rehearsed form: Emmanuel Macron will go to the Elysée and be received in the courtyard by Hollande. After a brief chat, Hollande will leave the presidential palace accompanied by the Republican Guard.

Macron’s first engagement as president will be to pay tribute at the tomb of the Unknown Warrior at the Arc de Triomphe and visit Paris city hall.

Then the real work begins. Macron is expected to name his prime minister around May 15th. He has said he wants to choose someone for the long term, but the position could be temporary. The president may be forced to replace his first choice with someone from an opposition party if he fails to obtain a parliamentary majority in next month’s election.

Macron has promised to field candidates – half of them women and half from civil society or local councils – in all 577 parliamentary constituencies, but he is starting from almost zero. He will also have to juggle his pledge to completely overhaul and renew French political life with the need to sign up some experienced political heavyweights to his government.

Before the vote Macron said he had decided on his prime minister, but refused to give a name. He will have a reduced government made up of what he described as a “commando” of 15 ministers – there are 18 at present – one-third of whom will have come from outside the current political elite, though a glance at their CVs shows many have passed through the École Nationale d’Administration .

“I want experienced people in the government, but those who come from civil society, who have legitimacy through the skills and what they have done and not necessarily from politics; there will be political personalities too,” Macron told BFMTV last week.

Of those to be recruited to his government, Macron said: “I will choose them for their experience, their competence, what they have done and not for what they represent or their political weight ...

“They will be people who are important mayors, regional or general council presidents; people who have sometimes been ministers, but who do things and who will be able to run an administration and conduct a public policy.”

Several names have been touted for prime minister, including the popular Socialist defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian , one of the first to rally to Macron’s presidential campaign, and Pascal Lamy, former director general of the World Trade Organisation.

Macron has admitted he is hesitating over whether to appoint a female prime minister. If he does two favourites are Sylvie Goulard, an MEP from the centre Democratic Movement (MoDem), the leader of which, François Bayrou formed a surprise alliance with Macron, and Anne-Marie Idrac, a former secretary of state for transport.

Alternatively, Goulard, the former head of public transport companies RATP and SNCF, could also be given the economy ministry, Macron’s former government post. Alain Juppé, the one-time Les Républicains presidential hopeful and mayor of Bordeaux, is also reportedly being considered for the ministry.

For other ministries he is expected to fish from the Socialist and centre-right Les Républicains pools, luring experienced and respected politicians such as the former president Nicolas Sarkozy’s labour minister Xavier Bertrand from the right and the Lyon mayor Gérard Collomb from the left.

The veteran centrist Francois Bayrou, who abandoned his fourth presidential attempt to throw his weight behind Macron, will almost certainly be rewarded with a government post.

Christine Lagarde, the current IMF managing director, has also been mentioned.

By recruiting from the left, right and centre, Macron will be hoping to create a dynamism behind his En Marche!! movement with a view to winning the crucial majority he needs in legislative elections to push through his reforms.</s>Image copyright AFP Image caption Strict election rules are now in place ahead of Sunday's vote

French President François Hollande has promised to "respond" after a hacking attack targeted presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron.

He gave no further details but said he knew of the risks of such attacks because they had "happened elsewhere".

The French media and public have been warned that spreading details of the attack would breach strict election rules and could bring criminal charges.

The centrist Mr Macron faces far-right candidate Marine Le Pen on Sunday.

A trove of documents - said to mix genuine files with fake ones - was released online shortly before campaigning ended on Friday.

Mr Hollande told Agence France-Presse on a visit to a cultural centre in Paris: "We knew that there were these risks during the presidential campaign because it happened elsewhere. Nothing will go without a response."

He did not elaborate, but Mr Macron's team has already been the victim of attacks which it blames on groups based in Russia and Ukraine, and last year's US election campaign was also the subject of hacking attacks targeting the Democratic Party.

Image copyright EPA Image caption Mr Hollande was speaking as he visited a cultural institute in Paris on Saturday

Mr Hollande added that he could not say whether the attack was an attempt to destabilise the election.

The BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris says the impact of the hacking attack on the vote is unlikely to be significant, as Mr Macron enjoyed a wide lead in opinion polls that were taken before campaigning ended.

Why is there a ban on spreading the data?

It is part of the restrictions that came into force at midnight local time on Friday.

No campaigning or media coverage of it that could sway the election is allowed until polls close at 20:00 local time (18:00 GMT) on Sunday. Some overseas French territories have already begun voting.

The election commission warned it could be a criminal offence to republish the leaked data.

Politicians and media are forbidden from giving details of, or commenting on, the leak.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Polling is already under way abroad, as here in French Guiana

The election commission said in a statement on Saturday: "On the eve of the most important election for our institutions, the commission calls on everyone present on internet sites and social networks, primarily the media, but also all citizens, to show responsibility and not to pass on this content, so as not to distort the sincerity of the ballot."

Can a ban work?

Analysts say that, given the open flow of social media content, policing this could be impossible.

The French daily Liberation covered the leak by publishing a general Q&A with a journalist.

Le Monde said it would "not publish the contents before the second round". It said it would vet and publish relevant material but "respecting our journalistic and ethical rules". It also carried a general Q&A of the leaks.

Florian Philippot, deputy leader of Ms Le Pen's National Front party, got a tweet in before the rules came in, saying: "Will Macronleaks teach us something that investigative journalism has deliberately kept silent?"

What data was released?

The documents were leaked on a file sharing website late on Friday. About nine gigabytes of data were posted by an anonymous user.

Mr Macron's En Marche movement said internal campaign documents, including emails and financial data, had been taken in an "act of massive, co-ordinated hacking".

"The leaked files were obtained several weeks ago by hacking personal and professional email accounts of several officials of the movement," it said in a statement.

How did the leaks spread?

The hashtag #MacronLeaks appeared on Twitter on an account used by a US alt-right figure on Friday afternoon - and was reportedly retweeted 87 times in the first five minutes, suggesting the use of automated bots to spread the information faster.

Within 90 minutes, the information had caught the attention of prominent supporters of Marine Le Pen and was further spread by bots.

Some three-and-a-half hours after the initial tweet, #MacronLeaks had been used some 47,000 times and the prominent Wikileaks account played a key role in publicising the hashtag.

Who might be responsible?

Unclear. The Macron camp has not blamed any specific party but said the hack clearly aimed to damage it and undermine French democracy,

It compared it to the leak of Democratic Party emails in last year's US presidential election that was blamed on Russian hackers.

Wikileaks, which published those emails, posted a link to the Macron documents on Twitter but implied it was not responsible.

Please enable Javascript to view our poll of polls chart. About the polling average line The polling average line looks at the five most recent national polls and takes the median value, ie, the value between the two figures that are higher and two figures that are lower. See individual polls

Is this unprecedented?

Macron campaign servers went down for several minutes in February after attacks apparently originating in Ukraine.

And last month, security experts from the company Trend Micro said that Russian hackers were targeting Mr Macron's campaign, using phishing emails, malware and fake net domains in an attempt to grab login names, passwords and other credentials of campaign staff

Mr Macron's team said it suspected the Kremlin of wanting to help Ms Le Pen, who supports a pro-Moscow foreign policy.

Russia has denied that it is behind attacks aimed at Mr Macron.

What is at stake on Sunday?

France's voters have rejected the two big political parties - the Socialists and the Republicans - that have governed for decades.

Voters will be making a decision on France's future direction and on its place at the heart of the European Union.

If they opt for liberal Emmanuel Macron, they will be backing a candidate who seeks EU reform as well as deeper European integration, in the form of a eurozone budget and eurozone finance ministers.

If instead they choose far-right Marine Le Pen she promises quite the opposite. She wants a Europe of nations to replace the EU.

What are the battleground issues?

One of the overriding issues is unemployment, which stands at almost 10% and is the eighth highest among the 28 EU member states. One in four under-25s is unemployed.

The French economy has made a slow recovery from the 2008 financial crisis and all the leading candidates say deep changes are needed.

Economic challenges facing next president

Marine Le Pen wants the pension age cut to 60 and to "renationalise French debt", which she argues is largely held by foreigners.

Emmanuel Macron wants to cut 120,000 public-sector jobs, reduce public spending by €60bn (£50bn; $65bn), plough billions into investment and reduce unemployment to below 7%.

What the two candidates want

BBC coverage

You can follow the French election on the BBC News website. Click here for all our latest stories.

On the day of the election, we will be running a live page bringing together the latest news, video and analysis.

On TV, you can watch a BBC World News Election Special, from 18:30 BST (17:30 GMT / 19:30 local time in France) on Sunday, which will be broadcast on BBC News in the UK and on BBC World News internationally, with Christian Fraser presenting from Paris.

For radio, BBC World Service will broadcast a special extended edition of Newshour from Paris at 18:00 GMT on Sunday.</s>Outgoing Socialist president François Hollande’s mandate officially ends at midnight on Sunday 14 May and he is expected to vacate the Elysée earlier that day.

On Monday 8 May, the interior minister Matthias Fekl will officially announce the result of the presidential election. The first results, which come at 8pm local time on Sunday evening, are only estimations based on the initial count from several hundred polling stations that closed an hour before.

The handover of power takes place next weekend. The ceremony follows a well-rehearsed form: Macron will go to the Elysée and be received in the courtyard by Hollande. After a brief chat, Hollande will leave the presidential palace accompanied by the Republican Guard.

Macron’s first engagement as president will be to pay tribute at the tomb of the Unknown Warrior at the Arc de Triomphe and to visit Paris City Hall.

Then the real work begins. Macron is expected to name a new prime minister around 15 May. He has said he wants to choose someone for the “long term”, but the position could be temporary. The new president may be forced to replace his first choice with someone from an opposition party if he fails to obtain a parliamentary majority in next month’s general election. 



Macron has promised to field candidates – half of them women and half from civil society or local councils – in all 577 parliamentary constituencies, but he is starting from almost zero. He will also have to juggle his pledge to completely overhaul and renew French political life with the need to sign up some experienced political heavyweights to his government.



Before the vote, Macron said he had decided on his prime minister, but refused to give a name. He will have a reduced government made up of what he described as a “commando” of 15 ministers – there are 18 at present – a third of whom will have come from outside the current political elite, though a glance at their CVs shows many have passed through the administrative hothouse, the École Nationale d’Administration.



“I want experienced people in the government but those who come from civil society, who have legitimacy through the skills and what they have done and not necessarily from politics, but there will be political personalities too,” Macron told BFMTV last week.



Of the political heavyweights recruited to Macron’s government, he said: “I will choose them for their experience, their competence, what they have done and not for what they represent or their political weight... they will be people who are important mayors, regional or general council presidents; people who have sometimes been ministers but who do things and who will be able to run an administration and conduct a public policy.”



Several names have been touted as Macron’s prime minister, including the popular Socialist defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, one of the first to rally to Macron’s presidential campaign, and Pascal Lamy, former director-general of the World Trade Organisation.



Macron has admitted he is hesitating over whether to appoint a female PM. If he does, two favourites are Sylvie Goulard, a Euro MP from the centre MoDem party whose leader François Bayrou was formed a surprise alliance with Macron, and Anne-Marie Idrac, a former secretary of state for transport.

Alternatively, Goulard, the former head of the public transport companies RATP and SNCF, could also be given the economy ministry, Macron’s former government post. Alain Juppé, the one-time Les Républicains presidential hopeful and mayor of Bordeaux, is also reportedly being considered for the ministry.

For other ministries, he is expected to fish from the Socialist and centre-right Les Républicains pools, luring experienced and respected politicians such as former president Nicolas Sarkozy’s former labour minister Xavier Bertrand from the right; and Lyon mayor and senator Gérard Collomb from the left.

Bayrou, the veteran centrist, who abandoned his fourth presidential bid to throw his weight behind Macron, will almost certainly be rewarded with a government post. 



The name of Christine Lagarde, the current IMF chief, has also been mentioned.

By recruiting from the left, right and centre, Macron will be hoping to create a dynamic behind his En Marche! movement with a view to winning the crucial majority he needs in the legislative elections to push through his reforms.</s>It is not obvious who initiated the hack, which amounted to up to nine gigabytes of data. A user by the name of EMLEAKS posted the material to a file-sharing medium that lets users stay anonymous.

The Macron camp said they would stop at nothing to get clarification on the nature of the unprecedented operation. "The data in circulation had been obtained several weeks ago through the hacking of private and work email accounts of several movement leaders," a statement on the website of Macron’s Onwards! Party reads.

"Those who leaked these documents add numerous fake documents to authentic ones to spread doubt and disinformation. By interfering with the official election campaign at the last moment, this operation obviously aims at destabilizing democracy, as seen in the US during the last weeks of the presidential campaign," the statement went on to say.

Democratic presidential Hillary Clinton’s emails also ended up on the internet last year during her race against eventual victor Donald Trump, a steady drip of information that she has said contributed to her stunning loss.

“Their publication makes internal documents public,” Onwards! said. But the hack has not sparked anxiety “as far as the legality and conformity of the documents is concerned,” the party contends.

Nevertheless, the party said “the seriousness of this event is certain,” adding that France “shall not tolerate that the vital interests of democracy be put at risk.”</s>Next to that key presidential showdown in France tomorrow and a headline that may sound very familiar -- a quote, massive and coordinated on the candidate leading in the polls in an apparent effort to help the nationalist candidate. ABC's Terry Moran reports from Paris. Reporter: At the 11th-hour in this bitter campaign, a stunning development that massive computer hack of the campaign of front-runner Emmanuel macron. Have you heard about the wikileaks hack of the macron -- We have heard about it. This is an awful word I think it's From LE pen. Reporter: It consistents of professional and personal e-mails and documents from the macron campaign. Warning the media to limit coverage of the hack because the free expression of voters is at stake. Voters we spoke with in France were deeply suspicious and even angry about this cyberattack. Hillary Clinton e-mails were hacked. Do you think is the same kind of thing? Same people? We don't know, we don't know. Because -- but it's very strange. Reporter: The drama comes at the close of this campaign, a race where the themes echo the American election last year. Marine LE pen, a hard-right nationalist, anti-european union, anti-immigration, anti-islam. And macron, pro-eu, pro-immigration, more tolerant. He got a last-minute, and highly unusual, endorsement from former president Barack Obama. I am supporting Emmanuel macron to lead you forward. Reporter: President trump, while saying he was not explicitly endorsing either candidate here, told an interviewer LE pen is "Strongest on borders, and she's the strongest on what's been going on in France." The final poll shows macron ahead by 20 points and LE pen sagging. This hack probably won't affect the outcome but it could damage macron if he wins. Terry Moran tracking the election out of Europe.</s>French President François Hollande has promised to "respond" after a hacking attack targeted presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron.

He gave no further details but said he knew of the risks of such attacks because they had "happened elsewhere".

The French media and public have been warned that spreading details of the attack would breach strict election rules and could bring criminal charges.

A trove of documents - said to mix genuine files with fake ones - was released online shortly before campaigning ended on Friday.

Mr Hollande told Agence France-Presse on a visit to a cultural centre in Paris: "We knew that there were these risks during the presidential campaign because it happened elsewhere. Nothing will go without a response."

He did not elaborate, but Mr Macron's team has already been the victim of attacks which it blames on groups based in Russia and Ukraine, and last year's US election campaign was also the subject of hacking attacks targeting the Democratic Party.

Mr Hollande added that he could not say whether the attack was an attempt to destabilise the election.

The BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris says the impact of the hacking attack on the vote is unlikely to be significant, as Mr Macron enjoyed a wide lead in opinion polls that were taken before campaigning ended.

Why is there a ban on spreading the data?

It is part of the restrictions that came into force at midnight local time on Friday.

No campaigning or media coverage of it that could sway the election is allowed until polls close at 20:00 local time (18:00 GMT) on Sunday. Some overseas French territories have already begun voting.

The election commission warned it could be a criminal offence to republish the leaked data.

Politicians and media are forbidden from giving details of, or commenting on, the leak.

The election commission said in a statement on Saturday: "On the eve of the most important election for our institutions, the commission calls on everyone present on internet sites and social networks, primarily the media, but also all citizens, to show responsibility and not to pass on this content, so as not to distort the sincerity of the ballot."

Analysts say that, given the open flow of social media content, policing this could be impossible.

The French daily Liberation covered the leak by publishing a general Q&A with a journalist.

Le Monde said it would "not publish the contents before the second round". It said it would vet and publish relevant material but "respecting our journalistic and ethical rules". It also carried a general Q&A of the leaks.

Florian Philippot, deputy leader of Ms Le Pen's National Front party, got a tweet in before the rules came in, saying: "Will Macronleaks teach us something that investigative journalism has deliberately kept silent?"

The documents were leaked on a file sharing website late on Friday. About nine gigabytes of data were posted by an anonymous user.

Mr Macron's En Marche movement said internal campaign documents, including emails and financial data, had been taken in an "act of massive, co-ordinated hacking".

"The leaked files were obtained several weeks ago by hacking personal and professional email accounts of several officials of the movement," it said in a statement.
• Where Le Pen and Macron stand on key issues

How did the leaks spread?

The hashtag #MacronLeaks appeared on Twitter on an account used by a US alt-right figure on Friday afternoon - and was reportedly retweeted 87 times in the first five minutes, suggesting the use of automated bots to spread the information faster.

Within 90 minutes, the information had caught the attention of prominent supporters of Marine Le Pen and was further spread by bots.

Some three-and-a-half hours after the initial tweet, #MacronLeaks had been used some 47,000 times and the prominent Wikileaks account played a key role in publicising the hashtag.
• What we learned from TV debate

Who might be responsible?

Unclear. The Macron camp has not blamed any specific party but said the hack clearly aimed to damage it and undermine French democracy,

It compared it to the leak of Democratic Party emails in last year's US presidential election that was blamed on Russian hackers.

Wikileaks, which published those emails, posted a link to the Macron documents on Twitter but implied it was not responsible.

Macron campaign servers went down for several minutes in February after attacks apparently originating in Ukraine.

And last month, security experts from the company Trend Micro said that Russian hackers were targeting Mr Macron's campaign, using phishing emails, malware and fake net domains in an attempt to grab login names, passwords and other credentials of campaign staff

Mr Macron's team said it suspected the Kremlin of wanting to help Ms Le Pen, who supports a pro-Moscow foreign policy.

Russia has denied that it is behind attacks aimed at Mr Macron.
• Five things the French election has told us

What is at stake on Sunday?

France's voters have rejected the two big political parties - the Socialists and the Republicans - that have governed for decades.

Voters will be making a decision on France's future direction and on its place at the heart of the European Union.

If they opt for liberal Emmanuel Macron, they will be backing a candidate who seeks EU reform as well as deeper European integration, in the form of a eurozone budget and eurozone finance ministers.

If instead they choose far-right Marine Le Pen she promises quite the opposite. She wants a Europe of nations to replace the EU.

What are the battleground issues?

One of the overriding issues is unemployment, which stands at almost 10% and is the eighth highest among the 28 EU member states. One in four under-25s is unemployed.

The French economy has made a slow recovery from the 2008 financial crisis and all the leading candidates say deep changes are needed.

Marine Le Pen wants the pension age cut to 60 and to "renationalise French debt", which she argues is largely held by foreigners.

Emmanuel Macron wants to cut 120,000 public-sector jobs, reduce public spending by €60bn (£50bn; $65bn), plough billions into investment and reduce unemployment to below 7%.

What the two candidates want

You can follow the French election on the BBC News website. Click here for all our latest stories.

On the day of the election, we will be running a live page bringing together the latest news, video and analysis.

On TV, you can watch a BBC World News Election Special, from 18:30 BST (17:30 GMT / 19:30 local time in France) on Sunday, which will be broadcast on BBC News in the UK and on BBC World News internationally, with Christian Fraser presenting from Paris.

For radio, BBC World Service will broadcast a special extended edition of Newshour from Paris at 18:00 GMT on Sunday.
The current French President François Hollande vows to respond to the Macron hack attack.