New poll shows France’s Macron leading in first round
PARIS: A new poll yesterday showed centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron for the first time beating the far right’s Marine Le Pen in the initial round of the French presidential elections next month.
Macron’s lead comes as a growing list of backers from both the left and the centre throw their support behind the 39-yearold former economy minister who is trying to upend France’s traditional politics.
The Harris Interactive poll showed Macron taking 26 per cent of the vote on April 23 – a six-point gain in two weeks – compared to 25 per cent for National Front leader Le Pen, who had long been leading in the first round.
In the likely event that no one wins an outright majority, a runoff between the two top candidates will be held on May 7.
The Harris poll shows Macron would take 65 per cent of that vote to Le Pen’s 35 per cent.
Though no polls currently show her winning, anti-immigration nationalist Le Pen is hoping to emulate the shock success of President Donald Trump in US elections last year.
In a boost to his campaign on Wednesday, Macron won the backing of Socialist former Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe who called him “a reformist, a European and a realist”.
Delanoe, who oversaw the French capital from 2001 to 2014, told France Inter radio he backed Macron because it was essential to “throw the most weight possible behind the candidate who can beat Madam Le Pen in the first round”.
His stance on the prospect of a Le Pen presidency was echoed by France’s ambassador to Japan, who on Wednesday broke diplomatic protocol by stating publicly that he would refuse to serve if she won.
“If the French tragedy comes to pass and leads to her election, I would withdraw from all my diplomatic functions,” Thierry Dana, 60, wrote in a column in Le Monde newspaper.
A former investment banker who quit the Socialist government in August to prepare a bid for the presidency, Macron has risen fast in opinion polls, but has never won elected office.
In remarks on International Women’s Day on Wednesday, he suggested he would ideally name a woman as prime minister if he were to win the keys to the Elysee Palace.
“To be honest, it’s too easy to say it this evening. But I’ve spoken to others, starting with men, and that’s what I wish really,” he said, when asked if he would name a female PM at a public rally in Paris.
An already unpredictable French election has become even harder to call given the legal woes afflicting the conservative challenger Francois Fillon, who is embroiled in a “fake jobs” scandal.
In another blow, the investigative paper Le Canard Enchaine published new claims late Tuesday that the scandal-hit Fillon had failed to declare an interest-free loan of 50,000 euros (US$53,000) from a billionaire friend.
Once the frontrunner in the race, Fillon has slipped to third in the polls and the gap between him and Macron and Le Pen appears to be widening. — AFP