Underdog Le Pen is unlikely to pull upset

Poll: Macron well in front for May 7 vote

PARIS Don’t expect far- right nationalist Marine Le Pen to pull off a Donald Trump- like upset against her centrist rival in next month’s French election.

Le Pen’s ascension to the final round of France’s presidential election next month shows how much her Euro- sceptic, anti- immigration movement resonates with French voters, but the odds are stacked against her ultimate victory, political experts say.

Le Pen won 21.5% of the votes in Sunday’s first- round contest, the highest tally her Front National party has scored in a presidential vote. Emmanuel Macron, who ran as an independent, edged past her with 23.8% of the vote in the multicandidate race. When the two candidates meet for the runoff on May 7, Le Pen will be the clear underdog.

According to a snap poll released Sunday night by Ipsos, Macron holds a commanding 62% to 38% lead over Le Pen going into the second round.

“Le Pen will attempt to take the center- right vote by ratcheting up her anti- terrorism rhetoric while at the same time softening her tone” on a European Union exit, Marion Amiot, an analyst at consultancy Oxford Economics, wrote in a research note Monday.

But Le Pen wants to suspend all legal immigration and expresses contempt for globalization and international organizations, such as NATO.

Nonna Mayer, an analyst at Sciences Po in Paris, said that Le Pen’s measures are too severe.