The latest polls on the second round of the presidential election in France point to the consolidation of Emmanuel Macron’s advantage in voting intentions for next Sunday (24). With an average score of 55.8%, the centre-right name reached its best level over the far-right Marine Le Pen.
The surveys, released between this Monday (18) and Tuesday (19), indicate that the president had a positive oscillation of one percentage point – the number is still three points higher than the average recorded in polls before the first round. . Still, the distance between the two candidates is far from that recorded in the 2017 elections, when Le Pen lost with 33.9% of the vote.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex said that despite the advantage it was too early for Macron to be sure of victory. “The game is not won,” he told France Inter radio. The politician stated that he will present his resignation if the president is re-elected, on the grounds that the country needs a “new impetus” – his departure would only take place after the legislative elections, scheduled for June.
The French system provides that it is up to the president to appoint the prime minister, a position responsible for directing government actions outlined by the head of state. The prime minister is also responsible for organizing the relationship with Parliament.
Published this Tuesday, the Ipsos poll points to Macron’s victory with 56.5% of the votes, half a point more than the poll on Friday (15) and 3.5 points over that of April 8, two days before the election. vote in which Macron and Le Pen qualified for the second round.
Along the same lines, surveys by Opinionway and Ifop — with 56% and 55%, respectively — showed Macron consolidating the lead and achieving his best level of vote intention since the first round.
The two candidates are focused on attracting voters to the name of the ultra-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who came in third on the 10th, with 22% of the vote.
A survey by Elabe, also published on Tuesday, 42% of Mélenchon voters say they will vote for Macron, 7 points higher than what was seen in a poll last week. The movement finds some support in the politician’s statements. Despite not endorsing the current president, he called on his supporters not to support the far-rightist.
On the other hand, he told BFM TV that he would be able to work with both candidates and eventually become prime minister.
France Insubmissa, Mélenchon’s party, carried out an internal survey to outline an orientation for the second round. Of the 215,000 participants, 37% said they would prefer a blank vote, 33.4% said they would opt for supporting the candidate for reelection and 28.9% indicated they would abstain — in France, attendance at the polls is not mandatory.
“The results [da consulta] they are not an order to support anyone. Everyone should draw their conclusions from this and vote as they see fit,” the campaign team wrote.
According to Le Pen, Macron’s growth may be linked to what she calls an attempt to instill fear in French society in the event of an eventual victory for the far-right. “Fear is the president’s only remaining argument,” she said in an ad.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told French media that Le Pen “would hand over the sovereignty of France to Vladimir Putin and Russia” if elected. Before the Ukrainian War, the far-rightist expressed admiration for the Russian president and even said that she would withdraw France from NATO, the Western military alliance.
After the Russian invasion, however, she started to designate the Kremlin as the aggressor and to defend the reception of Ukrainian refugees. Immigration, in fact, is one of the controversial points of the ultra-rightist, who criticizes the massive reception of Muslims by the country and even called the Islamic ideology “the real totalitarian threat of modern times”.
Macron, for his part, has also relented on initial proposals to appeal to left-wing voters and has said he is willing to raise the minimum retirement age to 64, one lower than previously advocated.
The differences between the two candidates could be exposed in the first debate between the presidential candidates, scheduled for this Wednesday (20) – Macron refused to meet rivals in the first round.
The 2017 encounter does not bring good memories for Le Pen, who at the time was accused of being aggressive and unprepared. A few days later, she admitted the “strategic error”, which she reiterated in the current campaign.
