Edouard Philippe, the former Prime Minister of France, has significantly fallen behind his leftist rival, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, in a recent poll conducted between October 19 and 22. This poll, carried out by Cluster 17, shows that Philippe has 16% of the votes compared to Mélenchon, who has secured 18.5%.
Competitors' Status
Previous polls indicated that the two were tied in last month's survey, each garnering 19% of the votes. However, both are now significantly trailing Marine Le Pen, the leading far-right candidate, who held her first campaign rally on Sunday. Le Pen appears to have suffered little damage from the allegations against her protégé, Jordan Bardella, who has been accused of making anti-Semitic remarks during his teenage years. Bardella, who was re-elected as the head of the far-right nationalist party at a recent conference, has repeatedly denied these allegations.
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Competition Among Candidates
Philippe's main ideological rival, Gabriel Attal, who is also a former Prime Minister, is not faring much better in this poll. Attal, as the main centrist candidate instead of Philippe, has only garnered 12% of the votes. Meanwhile, Raphaël Glucksmann, who recently achieved a decisive victory in the left-wing primary, is in fourth place with 13%. The poll results indicate that Glucksmann attracts 29% of those who voted for Emmanuel Macron in the 2022 election, while 49% of them would vote for Philippe. Macron cannot run for a third consecutive term.
The conservative leader, Bruno Retailleau, has yet to reach double-digit figures. Although he has remained steady in this poll, he faces a new concern: the rising popularity of David Lisnard, the right-wing mayor of Cannes.
In a scenario where Lisnard enters the race, he would surpass Retailleau and also impact support for Le Pen. A poll released last week showed that despite the unrest that occurred during widespread protests in France on October 17, there has been little change in the dynamics of the competition. Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets again on Saturday.
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