PA/ AFP GETTY French election: ISIS has called for attacks this weekend

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Voters will head to the polls on Sunday in the election, dubbed France’s most important in decades, with Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron vying to become president. Security chiefs have already announced extra police to patrol key areas on voting day as ISIS called for a day of attacks in its propaganda magazine. Terror and national security have dominated the campaign with Ms Le Pen vowing to oppose Islamist fundamentalism.

Security chiefs have already announced extra police to patrol key areas on voting day

France remains in a state of emergency following the Paris attacks in November 2015 which saw 130 people killed in a rampage claimed by ISIS. More than 230 people have been killed in such attacks in Paris and other parts of France in the past two-and-a-half years. Just three days before the first round of voting on April 23, a policeman was shot dead in central Paris by a gunman – an attack which ISIS also made a tenuous claim to.

AFP GETTY Police in Paris have stepped up security at the Eiffel Tower

Police arrested a “radicalised” former soldier near a military airbase near the town of Evreux northwest of the French capital in an incident that judicial sources said was related to a counter-terrorist inquiry today. Sources said a shotgun was found in nearby undergrowth, in addition to a cartridge and a Koran in the car he had left at the edge of the airbase, where he was arrested in the early morning on returning to the spot. Police in Paris have stepped up security at the Eiffel Tower ahead of Sunday’s vote after Greenpeace activists scaled the landmark and hung out a big political banner.

REUTERS Police in Paris have stepped up security amid protests and security threats

AFP GETTY Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron will go head-to-head on Sunday

Activists used mountaineering helmets, ropes and shackles prompted the Paris police chief to call an emergency meeting where the new security measures were decided. Police said a dozen Greenpeace activists were arrested after climbing the north face of the Eiffel Tower to hang a banner carrying the French national motto, "Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite" (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity). Beneath the French republican slogan in large black letters was the word 'Resist', a message directed against Ms Le Pen and her National Front party.

Eiffel Tower protest amid French presidential election Fri, May 5, 2017 Greenpeace climbers unfurled a banner emblazoned with the French republican slogan "Liberty, Equality Fraternity" and the word "Resist" on the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Friday, a message urging people to vote against far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in Sunday's presidential election Play slideshow REUTERS 1 of 4 A ballet dancer attends a photo shooting as activists from the environmentalist group Greenpeace unfurl a giant banner on the Eiffel Tower, in Paris