In a last Ifop poll for Paris Match, Zemmour would have passed before Le Pen and Pécresse. Philippot abandons the race for the Élysée. Le Pen, Zemmour, Mélenchon struggling for sponsorships.
With two weeks to go before the closing date for sponsorships, the entourage of Marine Le Pen is worried. Very worried. Even if the boss of the National Rally is doing a good campaign, even if the polls have long given her the second place behind Emmanuel Macron, she is not sure to be able to run in this presidential election. Marine Le Pen still does not have her 500 sponsorships essential to start the race to the Élysée.
Zemmour would have 500 promises
This will probably not console her, but she is not the only one. According to the latest figures (Thursday evening) from the Constitutional Council, Le Pen has so far only 366 validated signatures, Zemmour 291 and Mélenchon 370. If the three or any of these three candidates could not participate in this election, it would be a real democratic scandal.
However, Eric Zemmour claims to have received 500 pledges of signatures and Jean-Luc Mélenchon should also collect his signatures, if we believe his entourage. This is not the case for Marine Le Pen.
Zemmour in the second round ?
Another piece of information to take into account: the dynamics of Eric Zemmour’s campaign. An Ifop-Fiducial poll for Paris Match, Sud Radio and LCI now places the candidate of the Reconquest party in second position behind Macron, with 16.5% of voting intentions against 16% for the candidate of the National Rally and 15% for the candidate of Les Républicains.
This steady progression of Zemmour in the polls is obviously explained by the weak performance of Valérie Pécresse in the field. But also by the support that comes to him from “traitors” of the RN and to a lesser extent the LR.
Let’s add to that the financial support (we are talking about 40 M€) of some lobbies and what is called “the system” or “the market” that is to say these big multinationals that bet on a candidate rather than on another to ensure their business.
Anything but Macron ?
In short, if Zemmour maintains a high level of support, if Le Pen does not have her 500 signatures, the race will be between Macron (when he decides to run) and Zemmour in the first and second rounds.
It is true that the president-candidate has now acquired, in his five years in office, a solid experience in domestic politics as well as in geopolitics. But the anger is so strong in our country, that one does not see how Macron could win a ticket for a second term. The polls have been giving him the same score of around 24% for months.
Rightly or wrongly, we can blame the president: his late candidacy, his refusal to debate in the first round, his autocratic management of the health crisis, the health pass and then vaccines, the treatment by contempt of the Yellow Vests, the soaring price of energy (fuel, gas and electricity that ruin households), inflation, insecurity, uncontrolled immigration … And a few contemptuous little phrases that still don’t pass muster, like the one about wanting to “piss off” non-vaccinated people. And here are 5 million French people who will not only not vote for Macron but will do everything to get him out of office!
Thus, even if many voters will continue to sulk at the ballot box, as in previous consultations, it is not impossible that the verdict of the ballot box reserves some surprises on the evening of April 24, 2022. Like: everything but Macron!