Marine Le Pen, the chauvinist candidate of the far right, is dominant on the right and gaining ground among left-wing circles.
74 per cent of those who consider themselves ‘conservative’ want the head of the country’s leading anti-immigrant party to play a more influential role in French politics, both now and in the future. Only 53 per cent of right-wing supporters claimed to feel the same way about France’s former head of state Nicolas Sarkozy, and 67 per cent for Alain Juppé, who is currently favored to win the spring 2017 presidential election.