French poll shows Le Pen to lead in presidential vote

PARIS: France's far-right veteran candidate Marine Le Pen looks set to lead in the first round of elections next year, as the country's increasingly disillusioned voters seek real change, a poll of more than 13,000 voters has suggested.
Le Pen could garner a third of the vote on April 18, 2027 in the first round to replace centrist President Emmanuel Macron, results from the Ipsos-BVA survey showed on Sunday.
Polls in recent months have shown Le Pen as the front-runner but this survey of 13,060 people, conducted earlier this month, is unusually large in scale.
Centrist contender Edouard Philippe would face Le Pen in the run-off on May 2, but only if his rival from the same camp Gabriel Attal steps down, according to results published in Le Monde daily.
But if both Macron's former prime ministers stay in the race, splitting the centrist vote, hard-left hopeful Jean-Luc Melenchon would be runner-up and make it to the decisive second round, it suggested, after testing several scenarios.
Brice Teinturier of Ipsos-BVA said a negative mindset was increasingly prevalent among voters, with many worried about France's public finances and the cost of living.
Almost three-quarters of respondents believed the country's situation is about to 'deteriorate', compared to just 45 per cent before the last presidential elections in 2022 that saw Macron re-elected for a second and last term.
'Out of 13 feelings offered to describe their state of mind, 91 per cent of respondents mention at least one negative thought, and 68 per cent mention only negative feelings: worry, uncertainty, tiredness, anger, revolt, anxiety, depression,' Teinturier wrote in Le Monde.
'Never has the demand for radicalness and change been so strong,' he said. — AFP