By Clifford Ndujihe (with agency report)
CENTRIST French Presidential Candidate, Emmanuel Macron, is favoured to win tomorrow’s presidential elections, if surveys taken at the end of campaigns, yesterday, are anything to go by.
Macron is said to have extended his lead in the election over his far-right rival, Marine Le Pen, yesterday, the final day of campaign in a tumultuous election race that has turned the European country’s politics upside down. Tomorrow’s election is considered as the most important in France for decades, given two diametrically opposed views of Europe and France’s place in the world at stake. If elected, The National Front’s Le Pen would close borders and quit the euro currency. On the other hand, Macron, who is running as an independent, promised to pursue a closer European cooperation and an open economy. The candidates of France’s two mainstream parties, which have alternated in power for decades, were both eliminated in the first round of voting on April 23.
An Ifop-Fiducial survey, yesterday afternoon, hours before official campaign closed at midnight, showed Macron on course to win 63 percent of votes in the second round and Le Pen 37 percent. It is the best score for Macron recorded by a major polling organization since mid-April. Four other polls earlier in the day put the centrist on 62 percent and Le Pen on 38 percent, and a fifth showed Macron on 61.5 percent, as his second-round campaign gained ground following a stuttering start, last week.
Pollsters said Macron had been boosted by his performance in a rancorous final televised debate between the two contenders, on Wednesday, which the centrist was judged by French viewers to have won, according to two surveys. Macron’s strong showing in the debate, and another poll, this week, showing his En Marche (Onwards) movement likely to emerge as the biggest party in June legislative elections, have lifted the mood among investors worried about the upheaval a Le Pen victory could cause.
The post FRANCE: Surveys favour Macron after presidential campaigns appeared first on Vanguard News.
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