Ex Ukrainian leader slams Macron hesitancy
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The French President has been tipped to win the April election and win a second term as leader amid competition from Ms Le Pen, his closest front-runner. However a poll suggested Mr Macron has been losing support as the first round of voting draws near.
While Mr Macron remains the favourite in the event of a second-round against Marine Le Pen, he has lost 4 points in two weeks.
In the OpinionWay – Kéa Partners barometer for “Les Echos” and Radio Classique from Friday, Mr Macron is credited with 55 percent of voting intentions in case of a second-round against Ms Le Pen.
In two weeks, the gap between the two favourites has gone from 18 points to 10 points.
The poll surveyed 500 people, representative of the French population registered on the electoral rolls.
OpinionWay – Kéa Partners’ poll said in the April 10 first round of voting, Mr Macron is expected to win 28 percent of the vote.
Meanwhile, Ms Le Pen is on 20 percent of the vote, Jean-Luc Melenchon is on 14 percent, and Valerie Pecresse is at 12 percent.
In the second round voting for the Presidential run off, the pollsters say Mr Macron wins by 10 points at 55 percent to Ms Le Pen’s 45 percent.
From March 7 to March 11, the pollsters held that Mr Macron was at 59 percent and Ms Le Pen at 41 percent.
It comes amid warnings of a low turnout for the 2022 French election, with a Dominique Reynié, head of the influential Fondapol thinktank citing the coronavirus pandemic and the Ukraine war as unpredictable factors at the ballot.
He told foreign journalists: “This is not an election like any other and I cannot see in any way that the result is certain.
“We could say one thing today and tomorrow it could be different. We cannot be sure of anything.”
Mr Reynié noted Mr Macron had an advantage due to his role in Europe during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but warned the “flag factor” could backfire if the economic consequences of the war hit French voters too hard.
Mr Reynié continued: “Of course, we cannot compare problems like the cost of living against the tragedy in Ukraine but we have to take them into consideration.
“The French are shocked by Putin’s aggression and are pro-Ukraine, but it’s a difficult and evolving situation. Also, French voters don’t think it’s for them to pay for this [war] effort.
“In many countries, this would probably be considered a funny idea but in France people often consider that it’s not for them to make an effort but ‘the state’, without understanding that ‘the state’ is the same as ‘the French’.
“I don’t believe people will say ‘oh, too bad for the Ukrainians’ but they could say it’s for the state to pay for this.”
Ms Le Pen has also suffered a setback to her hopes of beating Mr Macron after she was heckled by protesters in Guadeloupe.
BFM TV said on Sunday that protestors chanted “out Le Pen” and “racist Le Pen” at the candidate in a hotel where she was recording a television program.
Mr Macron condemned the protest on French TV channel France 3, and said: “I find it shocking, like everyone else, and I strongly condemn them.”
He added he denounced “all forms of violence, verbal and physical”, and said he will “fight Mrs. Le Pen’s ideas — but with respect”.
Additional reporting by Maria Ortega
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