Le Pen losing presidential runoff

A daily opinion poll publication continued to show far-right leader Marine Le Pen losing the French presidential runoff on May 7.

The Opinionway poll, published on its website shortly before 1100 GMT, showed Le Pen scoring 25 percent in a first-round vote set for April 23, with independent Emmanuel Macron on 22 percent and conservative Francois Fillon on 20 — scores that would put Macron into the runoff against Le Pen.

Macron would beat Le Pen 66 percent to 34 percent in the two-way runoff. Fillon, were he to make it instead of Macron, would beat Le Pen with a score of 62 percent versus her 38 percent.

Fillon makes appeal to voters

Conservative French presidential candidate Francois Fillon appealed to voters on Wednesday via a newspaper column to back his campaign, trying to claw back support after losing his place as frontrunner over accusations of fake jobs for his family.

Fillon has managed to stem a rebellion within his party, partly for lack of a clear “plan B,” but plunging popularity ratings show the 62-year-old, who pegged his campaign on an image of integrity, faces an uphill battle to convince voters.

“I have nothing to hide,” Fillon said in his letter to voters. “Everything was legal.”

“Nothing will divert me from the real aim of my presidential campaign: set France back upright and bring the French together,” he said. “It’s up to you and only you to decide.”

Opinion polls show Fillon, a clear favorite until the jobs scandal erupted, is unlikely to reach a second round run-off, in which centrist Emmanuel Macron is seen beating far-right party leader Marine Le Pen.

But Fillon was not far from Macron in an Opinionway poll published on Wednesday, with the outcome within the margin of error.

Uncertainty over the outcome of the election, taking place in two rounds on April 23 and May 7, has this week driven the premium that investors demand for holding French over German government debt to multi-year highs.

Source: Arab News