For all of us rooting for French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron...

Macron has impressed more viewers than his far-right rival Marine Le Pen in a fiery TV debate, a poll found today, underlining his status as the favourite for this weekend's presidential runoff.

The candidates clashed repeatedly over terrorism, the economy and Europe in yesterday's hot-tempered debate that was watched by 16.5 million people.

A poll by French broadcaster BFMTV found that 63 per cent of viewers thought Macron was the "most convincing" of the two, broadly mirroring the forecast result for the decisive election on Sunday.

The duel was billed as a confrontation between Macron's call for openness and pro-market reforms and Le Pen's France- first nationalism. Le Pen branded the former economy minister and investment banker "the candidate of the elite" and the "darling of the system".

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