France is heading for a tight presidential race as incumbent Emmanuel Macron prepares to stake his claim for a second term. Voters go to the polls in the first round of the presidential election on 10 April, and assuming no-one wins a majority, the top two candidates take part in a run-off two weeks later. The winner will have the power to shape France and its key role in Europe for the next five years. Here we take a look at the contenders, and their chances of winning the top job. The 44-year-old president is still to declare his candidacy officially, but it is just a matter of time. His rise to the political summit was meteoric, becoming France's youngest ever president in 2017, less than a year after launching a centrist political movement challenging the traditional parties. He had previously served as economy minister under President François Hollande, but was an unknown quantity - an investment banker who had never run for elected office. To many voters, that set him apart from the ruling class, and he came to power with 66.1% of the vote, easily defeating far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. He has had to navigate choppy political waters, relying on a parliamentary majority to push through controversial reforms. He made it easier for companies to fire workers, cut taxes and introduced tough security laws to tackle terrorism. But he was forced to scrap a proposed fuel tax in 2018 after weeks of unrest stoked by yellow-vest protests, known as gilets jaunes. Other reforms, including a promise to bring unemployment down from over 10% to 7% by 2022, were hit by the Covid pandemic. France initially imposed one of Europe's strictest Covid lockdowns and has since fully vaccinated a large proportion of its population. A vulgar attack on France's unvaccinated caused Mr Macron no harm at all - but his government's attempts to turn a health pass into a vaccine pass met with strong resistance.