Jean-Luc Mélenchon

France began voting on April 23 under heavy security in the first round of the most unpredictable presidential election in decades, with the outcome seen as vital for the future of the beleaguered European Union.

Europe and the rest of the word are on the edge of their seats as nearly 47 million French voters are going to the voting booths to choose their candidate in the first round of the French Presidential elections on Sunday, April 23. Voting has already began after the conclusion of an acrimonious campaign between the four major candidates.

Here's how the French presidential election is going to work. This Sunday's vote will pick the leading two candidates, who will then have another two weeks to campaign for the run-off vote. But the leading four candidates are now bunched together so closely in the polls that any two of them could make it through to the second round. Including a couple of quite worrisome people.

Centrist Emmanuel Macron clung on to his status as favorite to win France's presidential election in a four-way race that is too close to call, as the camp of far-right challenger Marine Le Pen ramped up its eurosceptic rhetoric in a row with Brussels, Reuters reported.