France’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party has overtaken President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist LREM in the latest poll of voting intentions ahead of the 2019 European Elections.

The poll, taken out by the Institut français d’opinion publique (IFOP), was published on Sunday (4 November), and showed that Macron’s centrist party Republic on the Move (LREM) had fallen to 19%, while Marine Le Pen’s RN — formerly the National Front — rose to 21%.

Sovereignist Nicolas Dupont-Aignan had scored 7%, while the two ‘Frexit’ parties, each who campaign for a withdrawal from the European Union and led by Le Pen associates Florian Philippot and Francois Asselineau, won 1% each.

Macron warns Europe of a return to 1930s French President Emmanuel Macron has warned Europe of a return to the 1930s because of the spread of a nationalist “leprosy” across the continent, in an interview published Thursday (1 November).

There were approximately 1,000 participants in the poll, and they were asked about their voting intentions if the European Parliament elections were to be held imminently. In an earlier poll released in September, the results had Macron and Le Pen tied for popularity at around 21% each, with the conservative Les Republicains in third with 14%, and Melenchon’s France Insoumise fourth with 12.5%. This time, however, the far-left France Insoumise led by Jean-Luc Melenchon fell to 11%, after he was widely condemned for his behaviour towards police officers during a raid of his party offices.