Over 40% French Believe Neither Macron Nor Le Pen Able to Unite Country – Poll

Over 40 percent of French voters do not consider either independent presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron or right-wing hopeful Marine Le Pen able to unite the country, a fresh Ifop poll revealed on Sunday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to the poll, 42 percent of voters doubt either of the candidates would be able to unite France, and 36 percent of respondents believe neither Macron nor Le Pen have "presidential bearing."

A total of 54 percent of voters consider Le Pen to be the "uneasy" candidate, compared to 25 percent for Macron. At the same time, 42 percent of voters believe Le Pen is more able to defend the country from terrorism, while only 22 percent give their preference on this issue to Macron.

According to the poll, both candidates are considered as not completely honest (47 percent), unfamiliar with the everyday needs of the people (44 percent) and unable to reduce the level of unemployment (45 percent).

The survey was conducted on April 26-28 among 1,000 people.

Macron and Le Pen are set to face each other in the second round of presidential election, scheduled for May 7. The first round was held on April 23, with Macron winning with 24.01 percent of the votes and Le Pen coming second with 21.30 percent. The Republicans' party Francois Fillon and left-wing candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon got 20.01 and 19.58 percent of the votes, respectively.

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