GETTY•REUTERS Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron will clash in a televised debate tonight – watch it here

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How to watch the debate ? The two presidential candidates met for their final clash before French voters head to the polling stations this Sunday, May 7. The main broadcast aired on French TV channels TF1 and France 2, but was also shown on news channels such as BFM TV. An English version of the debate aired on France 24 and you can watch an online stream of the coverage below.

The debate began at 8pm BST (9pm Paris time) with the France 24 live stream kicking off at 8.10pm BST. More than 20 million viewers were expected to tune in to watch the debate, which last just over two hours and 30 minutes.

REUTERS The debate will be chaired by two journalist moderators

How will the debate work? Unlike the American format of election debates with lecterns in front of an audience, the French candidates sat down face-to-face in a direct confrontation.

His programme seems to be very vague, but in reality it is a simple continuation of François Hollande’s government Marine Le Pen, French presidential candidate

It was up to two moderators, Nathalie Saint-Cricq and Christophe Jakubyszyn, to keep control of the debate and stop things from getting out of hand. The moderators were expected to ask 60 questions from a range of questions on about ten topics covering issues like employment, the economy and the European Union. The debate was held in a TV studio in La Plaine Saint Denis just outside of Paris. FRENCH ELECTION LATEST ODDS TRACKER

GETTY The debate will last two hours and 20 minutes

Ahead of the debate, Mr Macron told BFM TV that he will not pull his punches and will go all out against his opponent. “I am not going to employ invective,” he said. “I am not going to use cliches or insults. I’ll use hand-to-hand fighting to demonstrate that her ideas represent false solutions.” But Ms Le Pen remained calm in the face of his threats, saying she is ready to defend her policies. “I shall be defending my ideas," she said "He will be defending the posture that he has adopted.” FRENCH ELECTION LATEST POLL TRACKER

Things you didn't know about Marine Le Pen Fri, May 5, 2017 Marine Le Pen is a French politician who is the president of the National Front, a national-conservative political party in France and one of its main political forces. Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 10 Described as more democratic and republican than her nationalist father, she has led a movement of "de-demonization of the Front National" to detoxify it and soften its image