Popular: Polls say divisive National Front leader Marine Le Pen has 28 per cent of first choice voters ahead of the 2017 French presidential election

Far right French nationalist politician Marine Le Pen has stormed ahead of President Hollande in latest figures revealed by a poll measuring voting intentions ahead of next year's presidential elections.

Front National leader Le Pen was shown to have double the support of the President, whose favourability ratings have been steadily dropping in recent months.

While 28 per cent of voters surveyed said they would vote for Le Pen, only 14 per cent gave their first vote to Holland, and former president Nicolas Sarkozy who is expected to be the Republican candidate received 21 per cent.

The poll, which saw 19,455 people interviewed, was carried out by Le Monde newspaper in collaboration with political science researchers from Sciences Po and pollsters Ipsos Sopra Steria.

It began in November and will continue to track voters intentions until the elections in Spring 2017.

Mr Holland's disapproval ratings have climbed with 53 per cent of respondents reporting they are not satisfied with their leader - a ten point increase from the last round of interviews in March.

The results mean his approval score on a scale of 1 to 10 stands at a dismal 2.1, down from 3.4 in November.

Presidents: Both President Holland (left) and former President Sarkozy trail seven points or more behind the far right Marine Le Pen. The poll, commissioned by Le Monde, show Mr Holland's approval ratings have fallen

France will elect their next president during a two-round voting schedule in April and May 2017, where the two top candidates from the first round face a head to head race to win their place at the Elysee Palace.

Le Pen came third in the first round of voting in the 2012 presidential elections with 17.9 per cent of the vote - behind Nicolas Sarkozy (25.5 per cent) and Francois Holland (28.4 per cent) and was thus elimnated from the race.

If she maintains her share of 28 per cent in the first round of the 2017 elections however she may be on course to proceed to the second round and victory.