Macron strengthens core vote, seen beating Le Pen in French election

Paris: A new poll of French voter intentions on Saturday showed Emmanuel Macron solidifying his support and still likely to defeat candidate Marine Le Pen in the May presidential run-off.
The BVA poll, published 43 days before the April 23 opening round, showed the independent centrist Macron scoring 26 per cent, up 2 percentage points from a week earlier and five points in the last 15 days. He is now level with the far-right Le Pen.
Both remain well ahead of conservative Francois Fillon, who is up 1 point to 20 per cent, and appears to have stabilised after his support fell amid a scandal-tainted campaign.
That would send the two leaders into a May 7 playoff at the expense of all other round-one contenders, including Fillon, who was initially the consistent frontrunner as candidate of The Republicans.
As in all other polls to date, the poll showed Le Pen losing the run-off, in this case with 39 per cent of the vote versus 61 per cent for Macron.
The survey of 1,419 people also saw Macron, an ex-banker who is campaigning on a promise of a break from traditional left-right politics, also strengthening his core vote.
Among his supporters, some 56 per cent are now certain to vote for him, up from 49 per cent a week earlier.
That is still well below Le Pen, whose backers are 83 per cent sure of voting for her.