Le Pen and Macron prepare for tense French election duel

French President Emmanuel Macron and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen were on Monday preparing for two weeks of tough campaigning after they reached a run-off of presidential elections that promises to be far tighter than their encounter five years ago.

With more than 90 percent of the vote counted in the first round, projections showed Macron scoring 28-29 percent, with Le Pen on 22-24 percent.

As the top two finishers, they will progress to a second round on April 24. 

Despite entering the campaign late and holding just one rally, Macron performed slightly better than expected and won immediate support from most of his defeated rivals ahead of the run-off.

"Make no mistake: nothing is decided," he told cheering supporters at his campaign headquarters. "The debate that we are going to have over the next fortnight will be decisive for our country and Europe."

He added: "When the far-right with all its forms is so high in our country, you can't say that things are going well."

Far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon came close to qualifying for the second round after a late surge gave him a projected score of around 21 percent.

The candidates for France's traditional parties of government -- the Socialists and the Republicans -- were meanwhile on course for humiliating defeats and historic low scores.

Final results are expected Monday, while four new polls on Sunday night suggested a tight second round between Macron and Le Pen.

One by the Ifop-Fiducial group suggested Macron had a razor-thin winning margin of 51 versus 49 percent, but the average of them indicated a Macron victory by around 53 percent to 47 percent.  

Macron announced Sunday night that he would be out campaigning on Monday in northern France, while Le Pen is set to meet her campaign team before resuming her months-long grassroots efforts in small towns and rural France later in the week.

Emmanuel Macron came to power as France's youngest ever president in 2017 at the age of 39, promising to do politics differently with a new party and push through a series of pro-business and welfare reforms.  

Marine Le Pen has fought for years to make the far-right party she inherited electable, and is now set up for a tight runoff showdown against incumbent Emmanuel Macron for the French presidency.