Voting has got under way in the French presidential election amid concern among French Jews that far-right candidate Marine Le Pen could be set for a significant victory.
Polls ahead of the ballot showed the Front National leader was in a tight race for the lead with independent centrist Emmanuel Macron, with both on around 22 per cent of the vote.
Conservative François Fillion and the hard-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon were also in close contention.
The top two will go through to a second round of voting on May 7. The result is expected to be announced at around 7pm this evening.
French Jewish leaders called on voters to “block” the National Front leader’s path to the Elysee Palace after she caused outrage during the campaign by denying France’s role in the round-up and transportation of the country’s Jews to death camps during the Second World War.
Crif, the representative council of Jewish institutions in France, condemned her comments as “an insult to France”.
Sacha Gozlan, the president of the French Union of Jewish students, called the remarks “revisionist”.
Ms Le Pen also angered the 600,000-strong community by suggesting French Jews should be banned from wearing kippot as part of “the struggle against radical Islam.”
On Friday, Francis Kalifat, the CRIF president, said Ms Le Pen's and Mr Mélenchon’s growing popularity was “a real danger to our country’s democracy”.
Ms Le Pen has made a conscious effort to move her party away from the reputation it had under the leadership of her father, Jean Marie Le Pen. Mr Le Pen has made controversial statements concerning Jews and other minority groups, and was prosecuted for Holocaust denial. In 2015, he was expelled by his daughter from the party he founded and led for decades.
However, the French Jewish community has continued to view the Front National wth suspicion, with Crif describing it as still a "xenophobic party".
Voting is taking place amid unprecedented security following the fatal shooting of a policeman in Paris on Thursday, an attack for which Daesh claimed responsibility.
A man wielding a knife caused widespread panic at the Gare du Nord station in Paris on Saturday, although no one was injured in the incident.
