French Election Shocker: Pollsters Baffled by Four-Way Race
- ‘Unprecedented’ close battle makes polling more difficult
- Victories of Sarkozy in 2007, Hollande in 2012 seen by polls
Who Are the French Election Candidates?
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The four-candidate battle to reach the runoff in France’s presidential election is putting pollsters to the test as never before.
With just a few days to go before Sunday’s first round of voting, every poll for the past month has shown independent Emmanuel Macron and the National Front’s Marine Le Pen taking the top two spots. Macron would then easily win the May 7 runoff, polls show. Yet both front-runners have been steadily slipping over the past two weeks, and Republican Francois Fillon and Communist-backed Jean-Luc Melenchon are now within striking distance.