Le Pen Remains Leader of 1st Round of French Election Despite Losing 0.5% - Poll

French presidential candidates Marine Le Pen is projected to remain the leader of the first round of the upcoming election with 25.5 percent of votes despite losing 0.5 percentage points over the day, a poll published Tuesday said.

PARIS (Sputnik) — According to the survey carried out by Ifop for the Sud Radio and Paris Match magazine, independent candidate Emmanuel Macron also lost 0.5 percentage point and is projected to come in second with 24 percent of votes. The Republicans party's Francois Fillon has on the contrary improved his result by 0.5 percent and now has 20.5 percent.

Le Pen is projected to lose to Macron in the second round, with 28 percent to 62 percent.

The poll was conducted between February 24 and 28 among 1,398 registered voters.

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

Earlier in the day, a European Union committee voted to remove French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen's parliamentary immunity after she had been charged with "publishing violent images" on her Twitter account of graphic images of terrorists beheading prisoners, one of whom was a US journalist.