A poll conducted by Ifop on March 31 suggests that Jean-Luc Melenchon best embodies the ideas of the Left.

A poll published on Sunday by Journal de Dimanche states that the French people believe Presidential election candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon best embodies “the ideas and values of the Left”.

Advertising Read more

While Mélenchon got 44 per cent of the votes, Socialist Party candidate Benoit Hamon came in second with 31 per cent followed by the election frontrunner Emmanuel Macron on 21 per cent.

Despite Mélenchon and Hamon coming from the Left spectrum, 56 per cent of the respondents don’t want to see an alliance between the two before the first round of the two-round election.

Forty-nine per cent of the respondents think Mélenchon is “capable of reforming the country” while 46 per cent believe he “has the stature of a President of the Republic” with 54 per cent voicing a contrary opinion.

The poll was carried out by Ifop on telephone from 31 March to 1 April 2017 with a sample of 1,002 people representative of the French population aged 18 years and above.

Meanwhile, Mélenchon believes that the nature of his candidacy has changed since the March 18 ‘march for the sixth Republic’ in Paris and the March 20 television debate featuring the leading candidates.

Speaking to the Journal de Dimanche, the 65-year-old leader of the movement La France Insoumise said that he has become a “reassuring figure.”

He cited two reasons for the change: the quality of his program and the rapid and unexpected decline in value of the other candidates.

When asked about the second round of the presidential election, he said it “will be as astonishing as the first”.

“There are 10 or 15 million voters who have not made their decision. Who can say what will come out of this?” he added.

Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning Subscribe