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Emmanuel Macron, speaking less than a week before the first-round of France's presidential elections, has urged voters to turn out as a predicted high abstention rate threatens to accentuate a tightening gap in opinion polls between his once comfortable re-election bid and second-placed far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.  

Since Russian soldiers pulled out of Kyiv and the surrounding area,  Ukrainian officials say they have recovered 410 civilian bodies. 

Macron's entourage pulled out all the stops for Saturday's meeting which will likely be the only one in the capital before the first round of voting on 10 April.

The French government is under fire for its costly use of the US consultancy firm.

General Eric Vidaud is reportedly leaving his post after Paris failed to accurately predict – in contrast with western allies – that Russia would launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Salah Abdeslam told Paris trial over the November 13, 2015 massacres that the reason he did not trigger his explosive belt was not out of cowardice or fear, but because he "just didn't want to".

Favourite Macron's estimated margin of victory over Le Pen is narrowing sharply as the election approaches, two polls published this week suggested.

The decision comes days after Ukraine's foreign minister called for a global boycott of French stores still operating in Russia. 

The lingering resentment towards the Paris elite suggests a Macron victory would not for long suppress the anger in French society that erupted with the anti-government 'gilets jaunes' or yellow vest protests.

Launch of 2022 vote comes amid row over Éric Zemmour supporters chanting ‘Macron assassin’ at rally.