Macron Surges in Election Polls as Race for Runoff Tightens

(Bloomberg) -- President Emmanuel Macron is surging in French election polls as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine scrambles support for the country’s presidential candidates. 

Macron would get 33.5% of the April 10 first-round vote in the latest Elabe election poll for BFM TV, L’Express and SFR, up 8.5 points from a week before; National Rally’s Marine Le Pen would get 15%, down 2 points from a week earlier, while leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon of France Insoumise moved into third place for the first time, with 13% support.

Far-right pundit Eric Zemmour received 11% of voting intentions, dropping 3 points, while Republicans candidate Valerie Pecresse slipped into fifth place with 10.5%. 

A separate poll by Harris Interactive for Challenges magazine published on Wednesday put Macron at 30.5% of voting intentions, up 3.5 points from a week ago. The same poll had Le Pen in second place at 18.5% and Melenchon in joint third place alongside Zemmour at 12.5%.

Macron, who officially announced his candidacy last week, has been climbing in polls since the outbreak of the war. He’s benefiting in part from a sense of national union created in reaction to the Ukraine invasion, according to Paris Match, which published a poll on Tuesday by Ifop-Fiducial that put Macron’s approval rating at 51%.

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