French far-right leader Marine Le Pen and hard-left rival Jean-Luc Melenchon are gaining momentum ahead of next year's presidential election, a poll showed on Wednesday, with political polarisation widening as Emmanuel Macron's era draws to a close, APA reports citing Reuters.
Le Pen would top the first-round vote with either 37% or 38% depending on the scenarios tested by pollster Odoxa in a survey carried out among 12,000 people between September 24 and October 7.
Melenchon would come second with 18% or 18.5% in each of the two scenarios.
Both were tested against one centrist candidate comprising either Edouard Philippe or Gabriel Attal, both of whom are former Prime Ministers of Emmanuel Macron. Philippe is seen getting 17% of the votes, while Attal would get only 11%.
Le Pen is seen beating Melenchon easily in a run-off and also winning, albeit with a more narrow margin, if she faced Philippe.
The growing unpopularity of Macron, as he comes to the end of his two terms as president, has hollowed out France's centrist political ground.
Melenchon has already run three times for president in 2012, 2017 and 2022 but has never managed to reach the second round. Le Pen has also run these same three times. She made it to the run-off in 2017 and 2022, but lost to Macron.
The first round of the presidential vote is due on April 18, with the decisive second-round due on May 2.
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