[Hala Gorani, Cnn International Anchor:] Hello, everyone. I'm Hala Gorani. We are live in Paris this hour. Thanks you for being with us on this Friday. This is a special edition of THE WORLD RIGHT NOW. Well, it comes down to this, a centrist who has never held public office and a far right candidate known for her anti-E.U. and anti-immigrant platform. They have left France's mainstream parties in the dust of a dramatic first round vote. And now either Emmanuel Macron or Marine Le Pen will be the next president of France. They have made their cases to the voters, in two days we will know who was successful. But as Melissa Bell reports, the final day of campaigning proved just as exciting as the rest of the race.
[Melissa Bell, Cnn International Correspondent:] A noisy end to a noisy campaign. Protesters gathered outside the Hans Cathedral. Inside the far-right candidate, Marine Le Pen, was paying a surprise visit, the last of her campaign, and one she was obliged to bring an abrupt end. Immediately afterwards, Le Pen blamed her rival.
[Marine Le Pen, French Presidential Candidate:] This is very revealing, perhaps it's a choice that French have to make. The horde that came to shove me to insult us at this sacred historical place. I think it is symbolic and practically organized by the militants in both cases.
[Bell:] In a debate on Wednesday that was as aggressive as it was personal, Emmanuel Macron had accused her of stirring up violence.
[Emmanuel Macron French Presidential Candidate:] I am talking about the party of the far right, the one that you lead. It's a party that spreads lies on social media, which encourages hatred, molests journalists, and generously dispense brutality everywhere.
[Le Pen:] We have never molested anyone.
[Macron:] You did on several occasions. At my meetings, you have threatened and beaten people and I have experienced that. That is the truth, Ms. Le Pen.
[Bell:] By the following day down the south of France, Macron's tone had become more magnanimous.
[Macron:] For the past ten days or so, we have been leading this fight, this fight for the second round that opposes the two projects face-to-face, and the one of the National Front. No! No! No, don't boo them, don't boo them, it is pointless to fight them. Make them lose. Vote against them. We must defeat them in the ballot box, and not boo them.
[Bell:] The independent centrist had not only risen in the polls after the debate, he'd also had a very unusual endorsement.
[Barack Obama, Former U.s. President:] I know that you face many challenges, and I want all of my friends in France to know how much I am routing for your success, because of how important this election is, I also want you to know that I am supporting Emmanuel Macron to lead you forward. Lamarche, viva la France.
[Bell:] But Barack Obama isn't the only American president taking an interest, only two weeks ago just after an attack against police on the Champs-Elysees, Donald Trump tweeted that "There had been another terrorist attack in Paris, the people of France will not take much more of this, will have a big effect on presidential election." A reminder of the fact that the world will be watching when on Sunday, the French decide which of these two candidates should become president. Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
[Gorani:] Our senior international correspondent, Jim Bittermann, has been following this race throughout. Jim, we saw a messy end of campaign in there for Marine Le Pen, when she has been egged and booed, you name it.
[Jim Bittermann, Cnn Senior International Correspondent:] It is been all downhill from Wednesday onwards, the debate where she was roundly criticized and people said that she lost, and eggs on Thursday, and today her last day of the campaigning, she was off to the cathedral and got booed and had to leave through the back door and so it's a real mess for her.
[Gorani:] I find it remarkable how close the people can get to these candidates and also given the security concerns here.
[Bittermann:] Yes, it is amazing, and earlier on we saw Macron get flour, and Fillon get flour, and as you were saying, you can practically make a crepe out of the ingredients, but it is amazing that people can get so close.
[Gorani:] So the latest poll really gives Macron a huge edge, 62-38 and he gained ground in fact after the debate on Wednesday. However, it is not a done deal. There is still a path for Le Pen.
[Bittermann:] There is a clever researcher over at one of the French institutes who did a study of the votes and said that basically just because the Marine Le Pen voters are so committed, 90 percent of her voters will do it. They will not abstain on Sunday, whereas with Macron, they calculate that something like 60 percent of his voters will actually carry through and vote, and so, because of that fact, the opinion polls could be skewed.
[Gorani:] And you always have the unknowns. A rainy day, this is a long holiday weekend, you can have all sorts of things happening in the last two days.
[Bittermann:] Absolute terrorist attack.
[Gorani:] Yes, exactly. What about Macron, we saw that Le Pen got egged and booed and all of the rest of it. What did he do because he has had some tense moments?
[Bittermann:] Yes, he's had some tense moments mainly with confrontations with workers and that happened again today. He had face-off with the some workers. He was also at Media Park today, which is a left wing media organization here, and there he did a little bit better, but he also was at a cathedral today, but he did not get booed.
[Gorani:] All right. Thanks very much, Jim Bittermann. Of course, we will stay in touch with Jim over the next few hours for more. Let's take a look at France's election in the wider context of Europe because you have two candidates who are diametrically opposed on that question, one pro-E.U. and the other one very much against France's current participation in the E.U. as it sounds. Pascal Lamy is a former director general of the World Trade Organization. He's been a high level adviser in the French government and the European Commission. Thanks for joining us live from New York. First of all, what do you make of this race? The fact that in the second round, Marine Le Pen, the National Front candidate against the centrist upstart who has never run a campaign in his life, Emmanuel Macron?
[Pascal Lamy, Former Director-general, World Trade Organization:] Well, I think that as you are rightly said, it is it is a clear dividing line between a pro-European candidate and a Emmanuel Macron was the only real pro-European candidate, and clearly, anti-European candidate with Marine Le Pen. So it is something that is rather new in the French politics where you have a sort of combination of traditional right versus left, and sort of the Obama versus Trump in some sort, and on the other side open against closed Europe being the dividing line. And I think the result on Sunday, whatever it is, it looks good for Macron although as you rightly said, there are remaining certainties on the number of voters. The result is a sort of referendum about Europe.
[Gorani:] Yes. But you say, it is right versus left, but here, you really have two entirely different visions and the traditional parties, the conservatives and the socialist, performed pretty dismally especially the socialist. This is a rejection of the establishment, of people who say, listen, the way that things have been run over the last several decades have not worked for us and we do not trust our traditional politicians. Why is it happening in France? This is completely new.
[Lamy:] I totally agree with you. It is incredibly new. I mean, none of us sort of reasonably informed French people or the politicians would have thought a year ago that Emmanuel Macron would be now probably the next French president. It is an incredible story, but right you are the root of it, the starting point is a sort of the disintegration of the traditional party system in France where the traditional right wing parties went to the extreme, and the traditional left wing parties went to the extreme. And this opened a huge space for a guy like Emmanuel Macron who obviously was clever enough to jump into that big hole that opened up within the traditional parties.
[Gorani:] But those who were others jumping into that big hole are the far right, Marine Le Pen, but also the far left, Jean-Luc Melenchon. You have another candidate who may not be a household name granted outside of France, [inaudible] almost 5 percent. All those three put together represent 45 percent of the French electorate comfortable with the idea of either exiting the E.U. or renegotiating France's role in it, possibly even exiting organizations like NATO. I mean, what do politicians like yourself, and other establishment figures, maybe what have you and others done wrong to create a situation where it is possible for politicians like them to find a real audience?
[Lamy:] I mean, France has always been very specific with the sort of the tendency to move to the extremes, which is higher than other more traditional European countries, and that is true that if you are look at on the one side if Macron wins, great news for Europe. On the one side, if there is still 40 percent of people who feel disenfranchised and against the political system, this is big. But mind you, the French political system is not a presidential system. We have presidential elections on Monday, and if Emmanuel Macron win, if, the next big step is a month from now parliamentary elections. France is basically a parliamentary system, and the president who would be elected with a majority of the parliament against him would be severely handicapped. So the real fight now assuming that Emanuel Macron wins on Sunday will be whether he can get a proper parliamentary majority a month from now, and this is another fight. So assuming he wins on Sunday at 8:00, the next immediate thing is what about parliamentary elections?
[Gorani:] Right. He might start the presidency if he is elected and it is the expectation weak. Marine Le Pen could be looking at five years from now, this is a long game for a relatively young woman of 48 who has a very, very passionate support base.
[Lamy:] It is one of the many paradoxes, and one of the very extraordinary things in this campaign that a guy like Emmanuel Macron succeeds in making Marine Le Pen, who is roughly the same age as he is, as an old politician. It is many ways incredible if you are not following the detail of this incredible story which I think for you media people, it must be a fantastic story.
[Gorani:] Well, I'm not I am going to actually agree with you on that one. Certainly, it's been fascinating and a pivotal moment for France and Europe as well. We appreciate you joining us this evening, Pascal Lamy, the former director general of the WTO. Thanks for being with us from New York. There's a lot more to come tonight, it has been quite the week for Brexit negotiations and they have not even officially started yet. We will explain the latest swipe from that man, Jean-Claude Juncker. And with just a few hours of campaigning to go, both candidates are trying to get everything single vote. We will have much more from Paris. There were eggings, boos, and verbal confrontation, and this is just Friday. We will be right back.