This general malaise finds the two big traditional parties — Socialists on the left and Republicans on the right — struggling for positives as the election clock ticks down.

Instead, the center and the far right are seen as frontrunners, with their candidates expected to lead the pack in the April 23 first round to qualify for the run-off vote on May 7.

France is “coming to the end of a political order that started in the 1980s,” said political scientist and pollster Jerome Sainte-Marie.