Eric Feferberg, AFP | Marine Le Pen (L) and Emmanuel Macron pose prior to the start of a televised debate on May 3, 2017.

French presidential candidates Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron battled it out Wednesday in a final live TV debate before Sunday’s run-off vote. Despite plenty of innuendo and outright insult, there were moments of genuine policy exchange.

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The candidates offer radically different programmes. Macron, the candidate for En Marche! (Onward!), favours a global outlook, a stronger European Union, and a French economy based on free trade. Le Pen, representing the National Front, wants to close French borders, withdraw France from the EU and the eurozone, and establish protectionist economic policies.

See how they expressed their platforms in their own words.

On parliamentary reform, and on the candidates' finances:

On parliamentary reforms

On education:

On Education

Le Pen on foreign policy:

On Foreign Policy





Macron on foreign policy:

On Foreign Policy

On increasing purchasing power and easing the economic burden on the poor and working class:

On Economics

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