Far out

20 April 2017 By Swaha Pattanaik Follow @swahapattanaik

Investors are nervous the presidential contest will be a choice between far-right Marine Le Pen and hard-left rival Jean-Luc Melenchon. That’s unlikely. Still, candidates who are blasé about debt and hostile to the EU could get two-fifths of the vote. Their ideas may catch on.

This content is for Subscribers only

Subjects

Regions

Context News

The top four candidates in the French presidential election - centrist Emmanuel Macron, far-right leader Marine Le Pen, conservative Francois Fillon, and far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon – are within touching distance of each other, according to polls published less than a week before the first-round vote on April 23.

Melenchon has enjoyed a surge in support in the past month. A Harris Interactive poll published on April 20 put Macron’s support in the first round at 25 percent, Le Pen’s at 22 percent, with Fillon and Melenchon both at 19 percent.

Email a friend

Please complete the form below.

Required fields *