Marine Le Pen continues to close the gap on Emmanuel Macron, according to the latest polling ahead of the French Presidential elections.
The two leading candidates in Sunday’s French presidential election will appear on TV on Wednesday night in a key moment in the campaign.
Macron’s position has tumbled since the early days of the war in the wake of the Russian invasion, which saw the president leap to over 30% in the polls and a lead of five or six points over his rivals.
Le Pen continues to close the gap
A poll by IFOP’s shows Macron on 27%, down by 0.5%, while his rival from the hard-right gains one percentage point to reach 23%, four points behind.
The far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon is in third place according to the polling, with IFOP giving the leader of La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) 16.5% of first-round voting intentions.
The top two candidates after Sunday’s vote go through to contest the second round on 24 April.
Macron and Le Pen are due to appear separately on Wednesday evening’s “10 minutes to convince” slot on France’s most popular TF1 channel.
Macron targets Le Pen’s ties to Putin
Macron targeted his nearest competitor on Tuesday on a visit to Brittany. Without naming Le Pen, he criticised “other candidates” for their “indulgence regarding Vladimir Putin” and their “financing with Russia”. But polling suggests Le Pen continues to close the gap.
The current president was referring to Le Pen’s reception by the Russian leader in Moscow in 2017 and the fact that her party continues to reimburse a €9 million loan to a Russian creditor.
Speaking to reporters, Macron was challenged over his dialogue with Putin, with whom he has held numerous phone conversations since the start of the war to no apparent effect.
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