PARIS, April 4 – Far-right French candidate Marine Le Pen, whose presidential campaign has been gaining momentum in recent days, garnered 48.5% of voter intentions in an opinion poll on Monday on a likely runoff against Emmanuel Macron highest score she has ever notched.
Harris Interactive, in a poll for Business Weekly Challenges, said a Macron win — which pollsters have considered almost a foregone conclusion for the past few months — is now within error.
“This is the first time that the two finalists (of the presidential election) will be tested so closely in 2017,” Challenges said on its website, adding that Macron’s lead in March was still between 53-47% and 58-42%. lay.
Monday’s Harris Interactive poll — like every other poll over the last month — still shows Macron as the likely winner.
However, his lead has shrunk significantly as he entered the campaign late, apparently distracted by the Ukraine crisis. He has focused on fairly unpopular economic reforms, including raising the retirement age, and has unsettled his camp.
With less than a week to go before the first ballot, Le Pen’s focus on the falling purchasing power of middle- and low-income voters has paid off. Their ratings continued to improve for both the first round and the April 24 runoff.
Earlier Monday, a poll by OpinionWay and Kéa Partners for Les Echos newspaper and Radio Classique also predicted a 53% to 47% reduction in Macron’s win margin. Continue reading
In 2017, Macron won the runoff against Le Pen with 66 percent.
Reporting by Tassilo Hummel in Paris Editing by Matthew Lewis