Updated April 20, 2017 16:19:12

A year ago political pundits laughed at Emmanuel Macron.

The former investment banker had never stood for elected office.

Even in France he was relatively unknown.

Yet despite the odds the 39-year-old formed his own independent party, En Marche, and launched an audacious push for the presidency.

Few are laughing now.

In this era of western political insurgency Mr Macron has gone from rank outsider to frontrunner in one of the most extraordinary campaigns in modern memory.

As many as a quarter of French voters have been won over by his good looks, charm and intellect.

"A lot of people see in him a resemblance with Justin Trudeau from Canada," said Lucie Rahman, a young woman who lives in Mr Macron's home town of Amiens, in north-eastern France.

"I know that my generation is all going to vote for him."

Her supporters see her as France's saviour, and she's managed to turn her National Front party from the far-right fringe to serious political contender.

If the polls are to be believed, the centrist Mr Macron is neck and neck with far right candidate Marine Le Pen.

If he makes it through this weekend's first round of voting, he's the favourite to take the keys to the Presidential Palace and pull off a massive upset.

There are a few ifs...

Why?

Well, the election is incredibly tight, with four of the 11 candidates still seemingly in with a chance to finish in the top two this weekend and therefore make it through to the final run off on May 7.

Mr Macron is also relatively untested.

He did serve as a minister under Socialist President Francois Hollande and speaks confidently about economic reform, boosting unemployment benefits and strengthening ties with Europe.

Photo: Many of Macron's supporters compare him to Canada's Justin Trudeau. (ABC News: James Glenday)

But critics call him the French Tony Blair, a progressive candidate obsessed with style rather than substance.

"That's not fair," En Marche supporter Nicolas Evrard said.

"But it is true many people are going to vote for Mr Macron because they have had enough with the two major parties."

A country that's lost faith?

Polls do suggest the country has lost faith in its political establishment.

Support for the ruling left-wing Socialists has collapsed while former favourite Francois Fillon, from the centre-right Republicans, has had his chances dented by a corruption scandal.

But political commentators believe he is the candidate with the best chance of stopping Mr Macron becoming president.

"There is a French paradox because in France people ask for change all the time but [at the last minute] they are reassured by continuity," Francois-Xavier Bourmaud, a political journalist with Le Figaro, said.

"With Emmanuel Macron it would be a real new change, a new step in the history of the country so maybe at the very end when they have to vote they will be reassured with Francois Fillon."

France is grappling with double-digit employment in many regions, struggling with mounting debt and reeling from repeated Islamist terrorist attacks.

Voter disenchantment is so high that a third of people might not cast a ballot.

In an already close race that makes it impossible to confidently predict the outcome.

Watch the story tonight on Lateline's special program on the French election at 9.30pm on ABC News or 10.30pm on ABC TV.

Topics: world-politics, france

First posted April 20, 2017 15:13:57