French Presidential Race Far From Over

Emmanuel Macron’s advisers are calling for caution as their candidate strengthens his lead in the French election race and Republican rival Francois Fillon is hit by another scandal, this time reports he profited from ties to the Russian government.

Macron rose half a percentage point, to 26 percent, in an Elabe survey of first-round voting intentions in Wednesday’s edition of L’Express while Fillon dropped a half-point, to 17 percent. The nationalist Marine Le Pen also slipped half a point to 24.5 percent and would lose to Macron by 28 points in the runoff on May 7, Elabe projected.

“We must be humble — we have 30 days to go,” Macron’s closest campaign aide Richard Ferrand said on Radio Classique. “It’s not over at all.” All the same, he targeted a victory over Le Pen in the first round on April 23 to deprive the far-right of a propaganda coup.

Bloomberg

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