Marine Le Pen’s party moves ahead of Emmanuel Macron’s as French far-right parties gain a combined 30% share of voting intentions.
ADVERTISEMENTMarine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN) has overtaken French president Emmanuel Macron’s La République En Marche! (LREM) party in an independent poll.
Polling agency Ifop asked 1,000 people how they would vote if the EU elections were held today.
It showed the RN rising from 17% at the end of August to 21% now, moving ahead of the LREM, on 20%, for the first time.
The RN’s 21%, together with the 7% of Nicolas Dupont-Aignan’s Debout La France (Stand up France) party and 1% each for Florian Philippot’s Les Patriotes and François Asselineau’s pro-“Frexit” Popular Republican Union gave 30% to far-right parties combined
The survey suggests that France has moved towards the far right since Macron successfully beat Le Pen, leading what was then known as the Front National, in the second round of voting in last year's French presidential election.
It also gives further evidence to suggest that the European Parliament elections in 2019 are shaping up to be a major battle between centrist, pro-EU parties such as Macron’s LREM, and far-right formations that want to end immigration.