French president Emmanuel Macron will go neck and neck against nationalist and far-right candidate Marine Le pen in the final runoff.
Recall that Macron defeated Le pen back in 2017 when both candidates contested the French election.
The French citizens are heading to the polls Sunday in a presidential election set against the backdrop of war in Ukraine and a cost of living crisis.
Deputy director of research at consulting firm Teneo said on Thursday that Le pen has got an opportunity to defeat incumbent Macron.
“While Macron is likely to get re-elected on Sunday, around 13-15% of voters remain undecided. Therefore, there is still room for surprises,”
Barroso said that one potential path to a Le Pen victory would be if a considerable amount of voters who had opted for hard-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon in the first round, suddenly switched to the radical right instead of staying at home or casting a blank vote.
A poll by public opinion on Thursday predicted that Macron would win the second round with 55% of the votes, with Le Pen on 45%. This is, however, a smaller margin when compared to the final result of France’s 2017 election when Macron won by wide margin of 66.1% of the votes, to Le pen’s 33.9%.
“Opinion polls now give Macron a 55% to 45% edge over Le Pen. In the past five years, polls have not understated support for Le Pen. But, with up to 25% of voters still undecided early this week, we cannot rule out an upset win for Le Pen,” analysts at Berenberg said in a research note Friday, adding that “a lot is at stake for France and the EU.”