Marine Le Pen widens lead in French presidential poll, would beat Mélenchon in runoff

A new poll shows Marine Le Pen leading the first round of the French presidential election with 36% of voting intentions, and she would decisively beat Jean-Luc Mélenchon in a second-round runoff with 69% of the vote. The OpinionWay survey for CNEWS, published Thursday, October 22, shows Le Pen gaining one point from the previous week. Mélenchon follows with 16%, while Raphaël Glucksmann (13%) and Édouard Philippe (12%) hold third and fourth places. David Lisnard rose two points to 6%. In other second-round scenarios, Le Pen would win with 56% against both Glucksmann and Philippe. The poll was conducted online October 21-22 with a representative sample of 973 registered voters.