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Post by Admin on Apr 16, 2017 18:34:47 GMT
The National Front candidate’s lead in the polls has been whittled away over the last few weeks, leaving her struggling to regain momentum. First-round support for both Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron slipped 0.5 points to respectively 23.5 percent and 22.5 percent, according to a daily rolling poll by Ifop on Thursday. Le Pen was at 26.5 percent in mid-March. The top four candidates in the presidential race are all within striking distance of the runoff, should they garner enough votes in the first round on April 23. “Le Pen is hammering away at the two issues of wartime deportations and Muslim fundamentalism because she is trying to refocus the campaign on her strong points, the key motivations for her electors,” Bruno Jeanbart, deputy chief executive of French pollster Opinionway, said in a telephone interview.
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Post by Admin on Apr 23, 2017 19:09:37 GMT
Far-right populist Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron appear to have won today's first-round vote in the French presidential election, exit polling suggests. The top two vote-getters will face off in a second and final round on May 7 unless one manages to get more than 50 percent of the vote today, which has not happened in a French presidential election since 1965. "This is still an anti-establishment outcome, even though Macron represents a centrist platform," Erik Brattberg, director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Europe Program, told ABC News. "Worth watching now is whether other French politicians will be rallying around Macron to defeat Le Pen in 2nd round." François Fillon, the conservative candidate who appears to have come in third place, conceded defeat, saying "There is no other choice than to vote against the extreme right. Therefore I am voting for Emmanuel Macron.” After the initial exit polls were announced, the country's prime minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, called on voters to support Emmanuel Macron and reject Le Pen in the next round, according to the Associated Press. Centrist Emmanuel Macron of the independent En Marche party secured the lion's share of votes in Sunday's preliminary election at 23.7 percent, with the far-right's Marine Le Pen of France's National Front party trailing narrowly behind at 21.7 percent, according to Harris poll estimates. Official results are only due in the next couple of days.
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Post by Admin on Apr 24, 2017 19:08:02 GMT
The French presidential election is a two-stage process. As no candidate received more than 50% of the vote in round one, the contest now goes to a run-off. Round two will see Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen go head-to-head on Sunday 7 May. The winner of that contest will be France's next president. The pollsters are in little doubt - they expect Mr Macron to win. He has had a consistent, and large, poll lead over Ms Le Pen for many months.
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Post by Admin on Apr 25, 2017 18:51:28 GMT
Some surveys suggest Mr Macron could win around two-thirds of the vote. He also now has the backing of France's two main parties. The ruling Socialists and the conservative Les Republicains have both urged their supporters to back Mr Macron.
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Post by Admin on Apr 27, 2017 18:57:28 GMT
Centrist Emmanuel Macron will face far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the second round of the French presidential election.To learn more about the presidential candidate, Evan Davis has met up with Benjamin Griveaux, Mr Macron's campaign spokesman.
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