Little is left for the polls to close in France, with Macron and Le Pen tied on 24% according to a preliminary poll. About 49 million French voters are called to the polls this Sunday for the presidential election in an electoral campaign that has aroused less interest than the previous presidential elections.
The president of France, the centrist Emmanuel Macron, and the far-right Marie Le Pen would be tied in votes in the first round of the French presidential elections, each obtaining 24% support, reported the Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique as of first exit poll.
Meanwhile, the leftist candidate for the presidency of France, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, would achieve the third position, with 19% of the votes, according to the same newspaper.
Next, the conservative Valérie Pécresse and the far-right Eric Zemmour would each get 8% of the vote.
The first estimates of votes, published by La Libre Belgique and other Belgian media this Sunday at 6:00 p.m. local time, are the results of a first exit poll carried out by one of the institutes in charge of these surveys, that newspaper specifies. which adds that for this reason it is necessary to be cautious with the results, since they are only indicative and could change considerably.
Although French law prohibits the dissemination of polls, partial counts or estimates before 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, the same does not happen with foreign media and in particular the Belgians, who follow the presidential elections in neighboring France with great interest.
Elections in France
About 49 million French voters are called to the polls this Sunday for the presidential election. After an election campaign that has aroused less interest than previous presidential elections, President Macron, his re-election candidate, and far-right leader Marine Le Pen are the favourites, according to opinion polls.
Under pressure for an advantage that vanishes according to the polls, French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday intensified his attacks against the far-right Marine Le Pen, who became his main rival for the first round of the election on Sunday.
“Marine Le Pen lies to the people,” Macron stressed during an interview with the newspaper Le Parisien, at a time when his rival is approaching in the polls and even threatens the Liberal’s victory in the April 24 ballot.
Macron leads the first round with 26% of voting intentions, followed by the far-right (22%) and the leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon (17%), according to the OpinionWay-Kéa Partners barometer. The advantage against Le Pen is reduced to 6 points in the ballot.
Another opinion poll published a few hours before the electoral ban attributes 26% of voting intentions to Macron, 23% to Marine Le Pen, 17.5% to the leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon and 9.5% to the far-right Eric Zemmour.
In the second round, President Macron would lead the voting intentions with 53% compared to 47% for the leader of the National Rally Marine Le Pen.