French election: traditional right surges as populist right splits | Eastern NC Now

After months of polling showing a close two candidate race between incumbent President Macron and populist nationalist right challenger Marine LePen of the National Rally, the dynamics of the race have changed dramatically with the entry of a second major anti-immigration candidate, intellectual Eric Zemmour and his new Reconquest Party.  Together LePen and Zemmour are consistently polling about thirty percent of the vote, with LePen slightly in the lead.  In the most recent poll, incumbent Macron, a globalist moderate, had faded to twenty percent but was still the leading candidate overall.

The candidate who has been making the biggest gains, however, is traditional conservative Valerie Pecresse of Les Republicains, who is now consistently in second place overall, polling in the high teens.  Behind the top four is Jean-Luc Melenchon of the far left La France Insoumise, who polls around ten percent.  The Socialists and Communists, long powerhouse parties, now poll in low single digits as does perennial conservative French anti-EU candidate Nicolas Dupont-Aignon, who is a member of the French National Assembly.  The remaining candidates in the field poll under two percent.

The two top finishers will meet in a runoff.  If the election were held today, that would likely be Macron and Pecresse, but the numbers are so close, that by April it could be Macron and one of the populist anti-immigration candidates or even a race between Pecresse and one of the populist anti-immigration candidates. 

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/leading-candidate-april-2022-french-election-only-polls-20