Macron Holds Slender Lead Over Le Pen With Debate Less Than A Week Away

Opinion polling ahead of the second round of the French presidential election shows President Emmanuel Macron retaining his lead over right-wing Rassembelement National leader Marine Le Pen, with less than a week to go until the crucial head-to-head debate between the two candidates.

• Macron continues to record support around the 53-55% level, with Le Pen around 45-47%. This polling is much closer than that recorded at the same point in the 2017 election cycle, when Macron led Le Pen by 59-61% to 39-41%.
• The debate will take place on Wednesday 20 April, starting at 2100CET (1500ET/2000BST). The 2017 debate between Macron and Le Pen lasted two-and-a-half hours and another lengthy contest is likely this time around.
• The event is viewed as very important for the outcome of the election. Macron and Le Pen jointly recieved 50.9% of the vote, meaning almost half of the voting electorate have a decision to make on whether to back one of the two remaining candidates or stay at home and not cast a ballot.
• Le Pen's poor performance in the 2017 presidential debate against Macron was seen as a contributing factor behind Macron's improving polling ratings in the aftermath of the debate and his subsequent comfortable 66-34% win over Le Pen in the run-off vote.

Source: Ifop-Fiducial, OpinionWay/Kea Partners, Harris Interactive, Elabe, Ipsos-SopraSteria, BVA, MNI