PARIS — French polling agency projections show President Macron and far-right rival Marine Le Pen leading in the first round of France’s presidential election.

If borne out by official results, the two will advance to a presidential runoff on April 24 with strong echoes of their last face-off in the 2017 election. The projections show Mr. Macron with a comfortable first-round lead Sunday of between 27 percent-to-29 percent support, ahead of Ms. Le Pen, who is expected to capture 23 percent-to-24 percent of the vote.

But the second round is likely to be tight.

The election’s result will impact Europe’s direction as it tries to contain Russia and the havoc wreaked by President Putin’s war on Ukraine. The April 24 runoff appears set to pit the centrist president seeking to modernize the economy and strengthen European cooperation against the nationalist Ms. Le Pen, who has seen a popularity boost after tapping into voter anger over rising inflation.

Official results are expected later Sunday night.

With its potential to reshape France’s post-war identity, especially if Ms. Le Pen wins, the election has wide international significance. A victory by Mr. Macron would be seen as a defeat for European populists.

His re-election might also not be cheered in the Kremlin: Mr. Macron has strongly backed European Union sanctions on Russia, while Ms. Le Pen has worried publicly about their impact on French living standards.

Ms. Le Pen gave a little wink Sunday as she dropped the blue envelope containing her choice into a ballot box in the northern town of Henin-Beaumont. Afterward, she said “given the situation in the country and in the world,” Sunday’s election outcome could determine “not only the next five years, but probably the next 50 years” in France.

In the 27-member EU, only France has a nuclear arsenal and a United Nations Security Council veto. As Mr. Putin keeps up his military’s assault on Ukraine, French power is helping to shape the European response. Mr. Macron is the only leading French presidential candidate who fully supports the NATO military alliance.

The top two vote-getters in Sunday’s election advance to a decisive runoff on April 24 — unless one candidate gets more than half of the nationwide vote Sunday, which has never happened before in France.

Mr. Macron and his wife, Brigitte, voted together in the seaside resort of Le Touquet, making their choices in voting booths covered by curtains of blue, white and red — the colors of the French flag.

France operates a low-tech voting system, unchanged for generations, with paper ballots cast in person and hand-counted.

Most polls closed at 7 p.m., with an extra hour allowed in some larger cities. By mid-afternoon, just shy of two-thirds of the electorate had cast ballots, with some voters turning their civic duty into a family outing, bringing along children and dogs.