An opinion poll following a televised debate between the two French presidential candidates shows 63% found the centrist candidate, Emmanuel Macron, more convincing than his far-right opponent, Marine Le Pen.
During the ill-tempered debate ahead of Sunday's presidential election the pair clashed over their vision of France's future and ways of handling terrorism.
They went into the debate with opinion polls showing Mr Macron, 39, maintaining a strong lead of 20 percentage points over the National Front's Le Pen, 48, in what is widely seen as France's most important election in decades.
For Ms Le Pen, the debate, watched by millions, was a last major chance to persuade voters of the merits of her programme which includes cracking down on illegal immigration and ditching the euro currency.
In angry exchanges, Ms Le Pen played up Mr Macron's background as a former investment banker and economy minister, painting him as a continuation of the outgoing unpopular Socialist government and a backer of rampant globalisation.
He accused her of not offering solutions to problems such as France's chronic unemployment.
But the sharpest exchange was over national security, a sensitive issue in a country where more than 230 people have been killed by Islamist militants since 2015.
Ms Le Pen accused Mr Macron of being complacent in confronting the threat of Islamist fundamentalism. "You have no plan [on security] but you are indulgent with Islamist fundamentalism," she said.
Mr Macron retorted that terrorism would be his priority if he is elected and accused Ms Le Pen of being simplistic."What you are proposing is snake oil," he said, referring to her proposals to close France's borders.
"I will lead a fight against Islamist terrorism at every level. But what they are wanting, the trap they are holding out for us, is the one that you offer - civil war," he said.
Ms Le Pen labelled Mr Macron a "smirking banker" and said he represented unfettered globalisation.
"Mr Macron is the candidate of globalisation gone wild, of Uberisation, of precariousness, of social brutality, of war by everybody against everybody ... of the butchering of France by big economic interests," she said.
Mr Macron hit back by calling Ms Le Pen a liar, saying she was talking nonsense and that her rhetoric lacked substance.
On unemployment, Mr Macron told Ms Le Pen: "Your strategy is simply to tell a lot of lies and just to say what isn't going right in the country."
The two candidates, seated opposite one another at a table in the television studios, mapped out diametrically opposed visions for France.
Mr Macron calls for liberal reforms to kick start the French economy, while Ms Le Pen rails against the loss of French jobs through off-shoring and would adopt protectionist trade measures.
Mr Macron finished only three points ahead of Ms Le Pen in the first round on 23 April, but he is widely expected now to pick up the bulk of votes from the Socialists and the centre-right whose candidates were eliminated.
Though Ms Le Pen has a mountain to climb, the campaign has been packed with surprises.
Upwards of 20 million viewers out of an electorate of close to 47m were expected to tune in to the two-and-a-half hour debate.
In an interview with Reuters yesterday, Ms Le Pen reaffirmed she wanted to take France out of the euro and get a national currency back into French pockets within two years.
The debate marks the first time a National Front candidate has appeared in a run-off debate - an indication of the degree of acceptance Ms Le Pen has secured for the once-pariah party by softening its image in an attempt to dissociate it from past xenophobic associations.
Outgoing President Francois Hollande, hours before the two rivals sat down before the cameras, renewed a call to stop Ms Le Pen and vote for Mr Macron.
A Cevipof poll published on the website of Le Monde - one of the last big surveys before Sunday's vote -saw Mr Macron getting 59% of votes versus 41% for Ms Le Pen.
An Ifop-Fiducial poll for Paris Match, CNews and Sud Radio gave Mr Macron a 60-40 lead.
His camp meanwhile said that, if elected, he might put back a deadline for cutting back reliance on nuclear power in the French energy mix - an announcement that sent EDF shares up 4.9% in heavy trade.
Assuming he wins, one of Mr Macron's immediate tasks will be to build a parliamentary majority in follow-up elections in June to push through his programme.
