Macron consolidates poll lead after TV clash with Le Pen

Official campaign posters of 2022 French Presidential Election candidates Marine le Pen, French far-right National Rally (Rassemblement National) party candidate, and French President Emmanuel Macron, candidate for his re-election are displayed on an official billboard in Herbeville, France, April 21, 2022.

FRANCE: French President Emmanuel Macron has maintained and possibly slightly extended his lead over far-right challenger Marine Le Pen following a prickly television head-to-head debate which he was judged to have won, polls showed on Thursday.

With just three days to go before Sunday’s election run-off, the two were back on the campaign trail — Macron in a Paris suburb with a strong left-wing vote, and Le Pen in the north of the country where she has a loyal following.

The latest polls suggested the incumbent was gaining momentum: Three separate surveys all including responses gathered on Thursday after the TV debate showed Macron’s score either stable or slightly rising to reach between 55.5% and 57.5%. But they also put the turnout rate at between 72% and 74%, which would be the lowest for a Presidential run-off since 1969.

Viewers of Wednesday’s televised encounter between the two final candidates deemed Macron prone to bouts of high-handedness with Le Pen but also found him more convincing and fit to be president, a separate Elabe poll for BFM TV showed. Le Pen, who focused on expressing empathy with people she said had “suffered” since Macron beat her in 2017, was judged slightly more in tune with voters’ concerns but her far-right views were still considered much more worrying, the poll showed.

– INDIA TODAY