French presidential candidates Marine Le Pen, left, and Emmanuel Macron, far right, prepare for their televised debate moderated by French journalists in La Plaine-Saint-Denis, France on May 3, 2017.
After an election campaign like no other, France is about to have a president like no other: either Le Pen, a far-right populist who could reshape Europe's post-war order and become France's first female leader, or Macron, a brainy upstart who's daring the French to gamble on a startup-style new political construction.
The outcome of Sunday's presidential runoff hinges on the millions of voters repelled by them both, who must make a choice — whether to hand Macron his expected victory, or stay home and risk handing Le Pen a surprise win. That choice will ripple across Europe's open borders, through global financial markets, across the battlefields of Syria and Ukraine and the around the halls of U.N. diplomacy.