Macron's party neck-and-neck with far right in 2019 EU election poll

Macron's party neck-and-neck with far right in 2019 EU election poll
French President Emmanuel Macron gestures as he delivers a speech on poverty to social aid workers in Paris, France, September 13, 2018. Michel Euler/Pool via REUTERS Copyright POOL(Reuters)
By Reuters
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PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron's centrist LREM party is neck-and-neck with the far-right Rassemblement National, formerly the National Front, for the May 2019 European Parliament elections, according to poll results published on Thursday.

The two parties scored 21.5 percent and 21 percent of voting intentions respectively in the survey by Odoxa-Dentsu Consulting.

The conservative Les Republicains party came in third place with 14 percent of voting intentions, followed by far-left La France Insoumise with 12.5 percent.

The Socialist Party of previous president Francois Hollande won just 4.5 percent, fewer than green party Europe Ecologie Les Verts with five percent.

In an Ifop poll in May, Macron's Republic on The Move (LREM) party was seen winning 27 percent of the vote, well ahead of the far right's 17 percent and more than Macron's 24 percent in the first round of France's April 2017 presidential elections.

Earlier this month, Macron's popularity hit a record low following the resignation of popular environment minister Nicolas Hulot and a summer scandal over his bodyguard. Only 23 percent of those surveyed had a favourable opinion of him, down from 27 percent in August, a YouGov poll found.

(Reporting by Geert De Clercq and Elizabeth Pineau; editing by Andrew Roche)

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