Next year's presidential election in France will be unusual in many ways: In addition to the strong probability that far-right leader Marine Le Pen will qualify for the decisive second round, it is also likely that a socialist candidate –for the first time during the Fifth Republic – will be beaten by a leftist alternative. Two serious contenders seem to be emerging: Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the far left, and former economy minister Emmanuel Macron on the center-left.