According to the latest opinion polls, Emmanuel Macron has shown his lead against his French presidential rival, Marine Le Pen, on the last day of the campaign ahead of Sunday’s run-off vote.
In an Ipsos poll, 57.5% of those polled said they intended to vote for the incumbent, compared to 42.5% for Le Pen. Even if a mistake of 3.3 points is made, the result in this way would bring a convincing victory to Macron.
Only 5% of respondents who said they would vote for Macron think they can change their minds, compared to 8% of those who intend to vote for Le Pen. But as a result of uncertainty about the end result, more than 40% of those who said they would vote blankly said they could still choose one of the candidates.
Another BVA poll, published on Friday, predicts that Macron will win by 11 percentage points.
On Friday, hours before the midnight deadline to halt the election campaign, Macron headed to Figac in the Lotte department in southwestern France for a final rally.
Macron will have to defeat Le Pen by a significant margin if he wants to claim a mandate for his program, which includes raising the official retirement age as the most controversial measure, a policy that has already sparked protracted national strikes and protests.
Although Le Pen’s campaign team broke the message that Macron was “arrogant and contemptuous” of her in Wednesday’s live debate, voters seem to think otherwise. A poll after the match, which lasted almost three hours, found that the majority of respondents found it more convincing.
Sign up for the First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every weekday morning at 7am
The biggest challenge for both candidates will be to catch reluctant floating voters who have supported other candidates, especially those on the left, and in particular the 7.7 million who chose Jean-Luc Melenchon in the first round and who will be tempted to abstain. or to vote empty vote.
A big uncertainty on the weekend of voting is the potential level of abstention. Nearly a quarter of the electorate failed to vote in the first round two weeks ago, and many political orphans are unlikely to turn their backs to vote for one of the two candidates they dislike. About a third of Melenchon’s voters said they would stay home on Sunday.
On Twitter on Friday, Le Pen called on people: “Get up and make your choice: Emmanuel Macron or France?
On Sunday, polling stations will open at 8 am and close at 7 pm in most of France and at 8 pm in major cities. Voting begins on Saturday in the French overseas territories.
Add Comment