Former French PM Juppe Ahead of Sarkozy in Opposition Primaries - Poll

Former French Prime Minister, Bordeaux Mayor Alain Juppe will lead in the first round of the upcoming presidential primaries of the opposition right-wing parties in the country, scoring higher than former President Nicolas Sarkozy, a survey revealed Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to the survey conducted jointly by Kantar, Sofres and One Point polling companies, Juppe is leading among candidates from The Republicans party and its allies with 39 percent of public support. Sarkozy is in the second place with 33 percent, according to the poll on the first round of the primaries. All other candidates received fairly insignificant support from the voters.

The poll also revealed that in the second round, 55 percent of French voters are also likely to support Juppe, while 41 percent are in favor of Sarkozy returning as the president.

The survey was conducted on September 21-26, with 8,031 potential voters taking part in the poll.

Primaries for The Republicans and parties allied with it will be held in France on November 20-27 this year. Aside from Juppe and Sarkozy, five other candidates from the right-wing parties have been registered for the primaries.

The first round of the French presidential elections is scheduled for April 23, 2017.