A four horse race is now emerging in France following the rise of leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon
With just 13 days to go till the first round of voting the big move in the polls has been the leftist contender,Jean-Luc Mélenchon, following what are being seen as strong TV debate performances.
One poll during the weekend had him on 19% just 4 points Le Len and Macron and at the same level as the Republican Fillon. For the moment he seems to have momentum with him and we do know that there are much higher proportion of don’t knows than we’d normally expect at this stage.
He is doing far better than in 2012 when as he was the candidate representing the Left Front (Communist Party of France, Left Party, Unitarian Left) and won just 11.1% in the first round.
Melenchon’s programmme includes a reduction in the working week to 32 hours and pulling France out of NATO.
Latest betting:
Macron 53%
Le Pen 24%
Fillon 17%
Melenchon 6%
The first rounds of French voting can often be difficult to predict. The old saying is that first time round people vote with their hearts – in the runoff they vote with their heads.