Marine Le Pen SOARS in latest French election poll as rivals Macron & Fillon FALL AWAY

February 24, 2017 in News by RBN Staff

Express

A BVA-Salesforce poll published today shows the Trump advocate soaring to the lead, winning 27.5 per cent of the vote in the first round on April 23, a 2.5 per cent increase since the last poll was conducted earlier this month.The Front National leader is ahead of Emmanuel Macron who is set to finish the first round in second place, with 21 per cent of the vote.

Marine Le pen set to lead the first roundGETTY•EPA

Marine Le pen set to lead the first round followed by Macron and Fillon

Leaving the conservative politician, Francis Fillon to come third with 19 per cent of the vote.But in the second round, Macron is set to take the lead, beating Le Pen with 61 per cent to 39 per cent of the vote, while Fillon was seen winning the presidency with 55 percent to 45 percent.

Since the poll was conducted on Sunday and Monday, it did not reflect the impact of the latest developments in the fast moving campaign, which has seen Fillon lose an early poll lead after being investigated over allegations he used public funds to pay his wife for an alleged “fake job”.It was alleged that the former Prime Minister paid his wife Penelope and two of his children around €900,000 (£760,000) for jobs that they did not actually do. Mr Fillon denies the allegations.

Fillon's lawyers called on prosecutors to drop the probeGETTY

Fillon’s lawyers called on prosecutors to drop the probe

The poll also did not take into account the possibility of veteran centrist Francois Bayrou running.Yesterday, Macron’s campaign was boosted by a surprise alliance with Bayrou who has run in previous French presidential elections.

Th 65-year-old offered to sacrifice his separate candidacy and join forces with the youngest candidate which led Macron to say: “The alliance proposed by Francois Bayrou is based on values and ideas.“It fits fully into the programme of renewal and unity that’s been our aim from the beginning and that’s why I accepted.”

Le Pen faced her fare share of shock yesterday after her chief of staff was put under formal investigation as part of a probe into alleged misuse of EU funds to pay parliamentary assistants. Le Pen denies any wrongdoing.