Marine Le Pen speaks during a press conference at the National Assembly in Paris, France, on 22 March, 2023. AFP File
New Delhi: If France’s 2022 presidential election were to be held today, National Rally leader Marine Le Pen would comfortably defeat President Emmanuel Macron, according to a poll published on Wednesday.
Macron is currently facing public outrage over his efforts to raise the retirement age for the majority of French workers.
According to the BFMTV poll, Le Pen would win the first round of voting with 31 per cent of the vote, ahead of Macron (23 per cent), and leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon (18.5 per cent).
Such a result would be an eight-point improvement for the National Rally leader, who finished the first round last year with 23 per cent to Macron’s 28 per cent.
If no candidate receives more than 50 per cent of the vote in the first round, the election is held in two rounds, with the top two candidates from the first round advancing. This has always been the case under the Fifth Republic, and in the 2022 runoff, Macron defeated Le Pen by 59 per cent to 41 per cent.
However, today, Le Pen would defeat Macron by 55 per cent to 45 per cent, according to the poll.
While Macron relied on Republican, Green, and some leftist votes to win the second round last year, far fewer of these voters would support him now. For example, while 68 per cent of supporters of Green candidate Yannick Jadot voted for Macron in the second round last year, only 52 per cent would do so today, found the poll.
Furthermore, 27 per cent of Macron’s voters in 2022 would either abstain or vote for Le Pen if given a rerun, the poll revealed.
Last month, Macron ordered his prime minister to wield a special constitutional power that skirts parliament to force through a highly unpopular bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 without a vote.
The move triggered a nationwide wave of protests and riots with largest demonstration seeing over a million people take to the streets across the country, and hundreds arrested in a single day in Paris for lighting fires and clashing with police officers.
Macron’s key priority
Macron has made the proposed pension changes the key priority of his second term, arguing that reform is needed to keep the pension system from diving into deficit as France, like many richer nations, faces lower birth rates and longer life expectancy.
Macron decided to invoke the special power during a Cabinet meeting at the Elysee presidential palace, just a few minutes before the scheduled vote in France’s lower house of parliament, because he had no guarantee of a majority.
Le Pen has continued to oppose the reforms, while condemning some acts of vandalism by protesters.
France “has been governed against its wishes. The way (Macron) is ruling will enable political forces with the exact opposite approach to his to gain power,” she said last week.
With inputs from agencies
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