French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Trogneux come to a voting station on April 10, 2022, the day of the first round of voting in France's presidential election.Photo: VCG

French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to take his hunt for extra votes to the industrial heartlands of northern France on Monday, a blue-collar stronghold of his far-right rival Marine le Pen who he will face in an April 24 presidential runoff vote.

Macron and Le Pen came out on top in Sunday's first-round vote, setting up a repeat of the 2017 duel pitting a pro-European economic liberal against a euro-sceptic nationalist. 

Polls predict a close-fought second round with one survey projecting Macron will win with just 51 percent of the vote. The gap is so tight that victory either way is within the margin of error.

"Let's make no mistake, nothing has been decided yet," Macron told his cheering supporters.

He took aim at his far-right rival over the financing of her populist economic agenda that would see the retirement age cut to 60 for those who start work before 20, income tax scrapped for the under-30s and VAT on energy reduced to 5.5 percent from 20 percent.

Reuters