Polls show French far-right Le Pen winning election first round, but losing knockout

[webfact]

Polls show French far-right Le Pen winning election first round, but losing knockout

REUTERS

 

Campaign leaflets for France's far-right National Front (FN) leader Marine Le Pen, candidate in the French 2017 presidential elections, is seen at the National Front local offices in Luce near Chartres, France, February 2, 2017. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe

 

PARIS (Reuters) - Far-right leader Marine Le Pen looks set to win the first round of France's presidential election in April, according to a new survey issued on Thursday, with other polls indicating she will lose the runoff to centrist Emmanuel Macron.

 

Harris Interactive said a poll of voting intentions for the April 23 first round indicated that Le Pen, who heads the anti-immigrant and anti-EU National Front, would get 24 percent, with Macron taking 21 percent.

 

Francois Fillon, a conservative who was favourite to win election only two weeks ago but has seen his campaign damaged by scandal, trailed on 19 percent.

 

Only the top two candidates go through to the May 7 runoff.

 

The poll assumed, however, that centrist Francois Bayrou would run and would pick up 5 percent in the first round.

 

Bayrou has not yet officially declared himself a candidate, though. If he does not run, his voters are likely to support either Macron or Fillon.

 

Two polls on Wednesday night gave Le Pen a similar advantage over Macron in the first round, and indicated that the former investment banker would beat her in the runoff by around 63 percent to 37.

 

(Writing By Richard Balmforth; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-02-09

 

[Baerboxer]

Looks a likely scenario. Many would vote for her in the first round to register their discontent. But actually electing her president would be a step too far and too risky. So they'll go for the left wing ex banker whose laughingly called a centerist to make them feel better!

 

[mfd101]

I should have thought 'Rightwing ex-banker who occasionally masquerades as a "socialist"' might be more accurate. He's certainly 'rightwing' by French standards (though that's not necessarily saying much)! ?

[pitrevie]

It will be a repeat of 2002 where anyone would have won once Le Pen got through to the second round.   "Vote for the crook, not for the fascist" or "Vote with a clothespin on your nose", were the slogans at the time. Perhaps the Americans could have learnt something from that.