SHARE
COPY LINK

POLITICS

France’s new right-wing presidential nominee surges in polls

A new poll places Valérie Pécresse, presidential candidate for The Republicans, beating Emmanuel Macron in next year's presidential election.

A new poll predicts a win for The Republicans' presidential candidate, Valérie Pécresse, in the 2022 French presidential election.
A new poll predicts a win for The Republicans' presidential candidate, Valérie Pécresse, in the 2022 French presidential election. (Photo by Christophe SIMON / AFP)

The new presidential nominee of France’s right-wing Republican party Valerie Pecresse has surged in the polls, two surveys showed on Tuesday, with one indicating President Emmanuel Macron losing for the first time.

Pecresse, who is bidding to be France’s first woman president, started the nominating process as a rank outsider but was picked by party members on Saturday after performing strongly in four televised debates.

While Pecresse would trail Macron in April’s first round by 20 percent to his 23 percent, she would win a second run-off by 52 points to 48, the Elabe group survey published on Tuesday evening indicated.

The poll marks the first time Macron, 43, has been shown losing since campaigning started in earnest. It also underlines the threat Pecresse poses to far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who was previously seen as Macron’s closest rival.

A second poll on Tuesday by the Ifop-Fiducial group showed support for Pecresse also shooting up in the first round, though at a lower 17 percent, and trailing Macron in the second round by 48 percent to 52 percent.

Analysts stress that the French election remains highly unpredictable, with voter sentiment shifting rapidly as new candidates enter the race.

Far-right TV pundit and author Eric Zemmour made a dramatic entrance into French politics in September, even eclipsing Le Pen in some polls, but his momentum has been fading, surveys show.

Macron is yet to officially declare his candidacy, but is expected to run for a second term vaunting his record on job creation and pro-business reforms, as well as his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Pecresse, 54, is the head of the Paris region and has described herself as a mix of Angela Merkel and Margaret Thatcher.

“The Republican right-wing is back,” she said on Saturday, setting her sights on winning the presidency for the Republicans for the first time since Nicolas Sarkozy lost his bid for re-election in 2007.

Elabe’s online survey polled 1,474 people aged over 18 on Monday and Tuesday, and has a margin of error of 1.2-3.1 percentage points. It was commissioned by the BFM TV channel and L’Express magazine.

The Ifop-Fiducial survey, conducted for Le Figaro newspaper and the LCI channel, was conducted from Saturday to Monday on 1,503 people. The margin for error was 1.2-2.7 points.

Member comments

  1. See how she fares nearer the time. It’s about time people realised that polls are meaningless and just fill newspaper space.

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

POLITICS

Macron ready to ‘open debate’ on nuclear European defence

French President Emmanuel Macron is ready to "open the debate" about the role of nuclear weapons in a common European defence, he said in an interview published Saturday.

Macron ready to 'open debate' on nuclear European defence

It was just the latest in a series of speeches in recent months in which he has stressed the need for a European-led defence strategy.

“I am ready to open this debate which must include anti-missile defence, long-range capabilities, and nuclear weapons for those who have them or who host American nuclear armaments,” the French president said in an interview with regional press group EBRA.

“Let us put it all on the table and see what really protects us in a credible manner,” he added.

France will “maintain its specificity but is ready to contribute more to the defence of Europe”.

The interview was carried out Friday during a visit to Strasbourg.

Following Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, France is the only member of the bloc to possess its own nuclear weapons.

In a speech Thursday to students at Paris’ Sorbonne University, Macron warned that Europe faced an existential threat from Russian aggression.

He called on the continent to adopt a “credible” defence strategy less dependent on the United States.

“Being credible is also having long-range missiles to dissuade the Russians.

“And then there are nuclear weapons: France’s doctrine is that we can use them when our vital interests are threatened,” he added.

“I have already said there is a European dimension to these vital interests.”

Constructing a common European defence policy has long been a French objective, but it has faced opposition from other EU countries who consider NATO’s protection to be more reliable.

However, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the possible return of the isolationist Donald Trump as US president has given new life to calls for greater European defence autonomy.

SHOW COMMENTS