Support for The Republicans’ French presidential nominee Francois Fillon has increased by 1 percentage point over the last 24 hours, while the prospects for victory for his chief rivals, French National Front (FN) party leader Marine Le Pen and independent candidate Emmanuel Macron, have not changed, an OpinionWay poll showed Friday.
Fillon is forecast to receive 21 percent of the vote at this Sunday’s first election round, the survey’s results showed, adding that the projection was 1 percent higher compared to Thursday results.
The survey also indicated that the chances of Le Pen and Macron to win the first round of the elections had not changed since Tuesday, as Le Pen is still projected to get 22 percentage of the vote and Macron likely to win with receive 23 percent.
According to the poll, Macron is projected to win the May run-off election with 64 percent of the vote in case he advances with Le Pen, whereas Fillon is expected to get 59 percent of the vote in the second round if going up against the FN party leader. On Thursday, Le Pen was likely to receive 35 percent of the vote if she went into the second round against Macron, and 43 percent if against rival Fillon.
The survey was conducted on April 18-20, ahead of Thursday night Paris shooting which left one policeman dead and two other people injured. The attack was described as a terrorist act by French authorities, and the perpetrator, who was killed by police, was reportedly a radicalized Belgian affiliated to Daesh.