Macron's Chances to Win in 1st Round of French Presidential Election Up by 2.5%

The chances of French presidential hopeful Emmanuel Macron to win in the first round of the elections have increased by 2.5 percent over the last several days, while the chances of far-right National Front (FN) party leader Marine Le Pen have grown by 0.5 percent, a poll revealed on Sunday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to the survey by Odoxa for the France 2 television broadcaster, Macron would receive 25 percent of votes in the first round of the elections, while Le Pen would get 27 percent of votes. The Republicans presidential candidate Francois Fillon would get 19 percent of votes compared to 20.5 percent revealed by another poll conducted on February 23.

The survey showed that Macron would beat Le Pen in the run-off voting with 61 percent against 39 percent.

The first round of the French presidential elections is scheduled for April 23, while the run-off is scheduled for May 7.

According to the Ifop survey for the iTele television channel and the Paris Match news magazine, carried out between February 20-23 among 1,395 adults, Macron would receive 22.5 percent of the votes in the first round of the elections, while Fillon would get 20.5 percent. Le Pen was projected to come first with 26.5 percent of the votes.

The chances of Macron have started to increase after Francois Bayrou, a French centrist politician and the leader of the Democratic Movement party (MoDem), declared earlier this week that he would propose an alliance to Macron instead of running for presidency himself.