Top of French presidential poll is Le Pen

A poll published on Wednesday found that National Rally leader Marine Le Pen would comfortably defeat President Emmanuel Macron if France’s 2022 presidential election were held today. The BFMTV poll found that Le Pen would emerge from a first electoral round with 31% of the vote, ahead of Macron with 23% and leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon with 18.5%. This would be an eight-point improvement for Le Pen, who finished the first round last year with 23% to Macron’s 28%. French presidential elections take place over two rounds if no one candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, with the top two candidates from the first round advancing. Today, Le Pen would dispatch Macron by 55% to 45%, with far fewer of these voters switching to backing the president today.

The poll found that 68% of Green candidate Yannick Jadot's supporters voted for Macron in the second round last year, while 52% would do so today. Additionally, 27% of Macron's voters in 2022 would either abstain or vote for Le Pen if given a rerun. Macron's government invoked special constitutional powers to pass a controversial pension reform bill without a parliamentary vote last month, which raised the retirement age for most French workers from 62 to 64. Le Pen focused her 2022 campaign on opposing the reforms and hammering Macron for France's rising cost of living. Le Pen has continued to oppose the reforms, while condemning some acts of vandalism by protesters. France, she said, has been governed against its wishes and the way Macron is ruling will enable political forces with the exact opposite approach to his to gain power.