PARIS (Reuters) – The hard-right political talk-show star Eric Zemmour was forecast to reach the second round of the French presidential election in a new poll published on Friday, although President Emmanuel Macron was still forecast to win the first round.
A poll published on Friday for Le Monde newspaper by Ipsos Sopra Steria gave Zemmour between 16-16.5% of votes in the first round of next year’s election – enough to put him in the final, second-round run-off vote.
Macron was seen with 24 percent of votes in the first round, on the assumption that Xavier Bertrand stood for the right-wing Les Republicains party, and with 28 percent if Michel Barnier stood for Les Republicains.
The poll for Le Monde marks the second survey which has put Zemmour – whose candidacy remains unconfirmed – in the final, run-off vote of the election, following a similar forecast in a Harris Interactive poll earlier this month.
Surveys still forecast Macron as the likely, eventual winner.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, edited by Benoit Van Overstraeten)
