Le Pen should team up with other pro-Russian candidate, says pundit

Soral says both are pro-Russian and both would address the concerns of French workers. Youth unemployment is above the national average in France, at more than 20 percent.

But predictions are bound to be complicated, because almost 40 percent of French voters remain undecided. That was down only two percentage points from a week earlier, showing a wide open race to the Elysee Palace.

The Front National is the number one party with young people in France. Recent polls show Le Pen has 40 percent support among French youths aged 18 to 24, a astounding figure for a country that’s traditionally been famous for its leftist youth movements.

Gaëtan Dussausaye, 23, leader of the FNJ, Front National Jeunesse or youth wing, says during the last presidential election five years ago, the FNJ had 10 000 members. Today is has 25 000 adherents, the largest of any of the political parties’ youth factions.

He says only Le Pen will challenge with 40 years of globalisation, multiculturalism and negative free market policies that have hurt France.

The French as well as international media are pushing hard for Emmanuel Macron, who has slightly increased his voter base certainty, up 8 points from a week ago since campaigning began in earnest in February. But Macron has so far failed to attract new supporters despite being the MSM darling.

He has labelled the Front National the “party of hatred” in an emotional appeal at a rally in Marseilles. “The National Front is our main opponent,” Macron said while vowing to “fight” them.

Francois Fillon has also recovered from the lows that followed a scandal involving paying his wife with tax contributions for no work. Fillon is now within 5 points of Le Pen and 6 points of Macron, according to BVA’s poll.

The Republicans candidate Fillon warned voters about France’s heavy debts, saying the country faces the same fate as Greece during a visit to Corsica. In 2007 as prime minister under Sarkozy, during a visit to the island, Fillon had declared that he was head of a “failing state”.

Fillon has based his campaign on tough but realistic proposals, including cutting France’s deficit by pledging 100 billion euros of spending cuts and a serious reduction of 500 000 public sector jobs.

Marine Le Pen however, the frontrunner in the first round in April, still boasts the most solid voter base, with an unchanged 81 percent of her voters certain to pick her. Le Pen is due to hold a meeting in Bordeaux on Sunday.

An Opinionway survey published recently sees Macron defeating Le Pen with a large majority, provided the French do not vote against her in the second round.

But fewer voters are trusting opinion polls. One French daily, Le Parisien, has stopped publishing them altogether, and at FRANCE 24, polls are not included in day-to-day coverage any longer.

The French presidential run-off is being held on a holiday weekend, which could affect turnout in favour of Le Pen, as only wealthy voters can afford a holiday.

On March 27, in an opinion piece in French left-wing daily Libération, physicist Serge Galam, calculated that in the second round, if voter turnout is extremely high among Le Pen supporters – around 90 percent – but relatively low among other voters – around 70 percent – Le Pen could gain more than enough support to win.

Galam concludes: “After going from impossible to unlikely, the election of Le Pen as president in 2017 is now slipping from unlikely to very possible.”

French daily Le Figaro on March 11-12 predicted that if Macron’s presidency turns out to be disappointing, Le Pen will be elected president in 2022.