GETTY A new poll of French voters has Emmanuel Macron just ahead of rival Marine Le Pen

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Published just over three weeks before the April 23 opening round, the Ifop-Fiducial poll for Paris Match, CNews and Sud Radio shows Mr Macron would garner 26 per cent of the vote in the election’s first round. But Mrs Le Pen, the anti-Brussels leader of France’s Front National party, is breathing down his neck and expected to garner 25.5 per cent of the vote.

Both presidential favourites hold a solid lead over conservative centre-right candidate François Fillon, who has dropped to below 20 per cent and is tipped to pick up no more than 17.5 per cent of the vote. The former frontrunner’s popularity took a hit earlier this year after it was alleged his wife, Penelope, had been paid more than half a million euros for a ‘fake’ job as his parliamentary assistant.

GETTY Macron is expected to face off against Le Pen in a May 7 poll

Both haves since been charged with a string of fraud-related charges, including embezzlement and abuse of public funds. Communist-backed Jean-Luc Mélenchon, for his part, is expected to garner 14.5 per cent of the vote in the first round. His closest rival, left-wing rebel Benoît Hamon, the official candidate for the Socialist party, would get 10 per cent of the vote the poll says.

GETTY Marine Le Pen is breathing down the leader's throat as Francois Fillon predicted vote share falls

Live pictures: Marine Le Pen meets Putin on visit to Moscow Fri, March 24, 2017 Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 4 Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with French presidential election candidate Marine Le Pen