France votes in pivotal election: Macron hacked but still favourite

France’s centrist presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron appears to have “been the victim of a massive and coordinated hack”, campaign staff announced on Friday. The revelation comes just 36 hours before voting begins on Sunday morning in a pivotal French election.

While En Marche!, Macron’s political platform, had previously accused Russian-backed groups of attacking its systems, it has not made any allegations about the most recent developments.

Staff say they’re confident that none of the information leaked will be detrimental to Macron’s campaign but have been unable to make statements since 2200 GMT on Friday due to a media blackout.

Regardless, calls have been made for the media not to republish the leaks, despite being openly circulated online.

But barring any truly game-changing revelations, it’s highly unlikely that the recent security breach will affect Macron’s 20-point lead over Marine Le Pen. Earlier corruption allegations had little affect on the swashbuckling reformist and pollsters believe that Le Pen has acquired too few of disgruntled Fillon and Melenchon voters to mount a serious challenge on Sunday.

Dig deeper: The French presidential election: Marine or Macron