Just nine days to go and the French presidential election is moving fitfully into third gear. There is no “favourite” this time round, just a reluctant acceptance of the inevitable. Short of an electoral clusterbomb that changes everything, Emmanuel Macron should make it safely through the opening round and into the run-off on 24 April, when in all likelihood he will dispose of Marine Le Pen, leader of the “respectable” Far Right, or, just possibly, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, France’s Jeremy Corbyn.