Macron still ahead after TV showdown

FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron has maintained his lead over far-right challenger Marine Le Pen following a prickly television head-to-head debate, a poll showed yesterday.

With just days to go before Sunday’s election run-off, the two were back on the campaign trail – Macron in a Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis with a strong left-wing vote, and Le Pen in the north of the country where she has a loyal following.

Macron was seen as winning re-election with an unchanged 56% of the vote, according to a survey.

But uncertainty about the final result remained high as the poll also showed that just 72% expected to cast their vote, a figure which would mark the lowest turnout since 1969.

Viewers of the only debate between the two final candidates deemed Macron prone to bouts of arrogance but also found him more convincing and fit to be president, a separate poll showed.

Le Pen, who focused on expressing empathy with people she said had “suffered” since Macron beat her in 2017, was judged slightly more in tune with voters’ concerns but her far-right views were still considered much more worrying, the poll showed.

The centrist Macron is a staunch supporter of the EU. Le Pen’s policies include a ban on Muslim headscarves in public and giving French nationals priority in jobs and benefits.