Can Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen win the French election?

France’s presidential candidates cert. The two-round presidenti.

This two photo combo and provided by the AP on the condition that its source not be revealed, shows Frenchman Mahiedine Merabet. But a recent surge in ratings by far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon has broadened the competition.

Only the top two will advance to the run-off on May 7.

While French voters have consistently showed up en masse for presidential elections in the past – participation averages 80 percent over the past 50 years – current projections show a good third of registered voters may stay home on April 23. The political novice might end up having to “cohabitate” in power with a conservative-dominated legislature after parliamentary elections in June, or form an uneasy coalition with a center-left faction of the divided Socialist Party.

“The fact that the two individuals were arrested in Marseille as Marine Le Pen was preparing to hold a meeting the following day is perhaps not a coincidence”, a member of her entourage said.

“The number one worry is not a victory for Marine Le Pen”.

“The fact that he appeals for charity, for welcoming others, foreigners, does not shock me”, Le Pen said.

He promised that he would be a ” president of the awakening of our European ambitions”.

The Nation: Le Pen’s Long Shadow – “Before Donald Trump, before Nigel Farage and Brexit, before Viktor Orban and Geert Wilders, there was Jean-Marie Le Pen”. However, she has recently lost the leader’s edge in polls.

Ten of the 11 candidates wanted to take France back to a “fantasy of the past”.

Four candidates stand a realistic chance of making it past the first round of Sunday’s presidential election in France. After a good showing in television debates and at rallies, his promises to tax the rich and renegotiate France’s role in the European Union and trade deals have attracted voters who have rejected the Socialist party, led by candidate Benoit Hamon.

Macron on Wednesday told a rally that he was the only candidate capable “of ensuring the security” of his countrymen and pledged to “track down all those who have attacked our country or are planning to do so and prevent them from doing harm”. French centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron an.

“This huge army in the shadows who want us to live in fear.is not a fatality”, she told the cheering crowd. “Maybe we’re all just in denial, but few seriously believe she can win this time”, said a senior Treasury official, reflecting the views of many fellow graduates of the elite École Nationale d’Administration civil service college.

She assailed recent governments for failing to stop extremist attacks in recent years and warned on BFM television that “we are all targets”.

Elsewhere in the financial market movements related to the French election, the euro is likely to hit parity with the dollar regardless of whether Marine Le Pen is victorious in the French presidential election in May, according to strategists from Deutsche Asset Management, the money management arm of German finance giant Deutsche Bank.

A new poll out Wednesday showed Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron sharing first place. Some Muslims feel unfairly targeted by French laws banning headscarves in schools and full-face veils in public.

“Investors are going to be very careful this week and clearly the only thing that’s going to be on their minds is what happens in France”, said Chris Scicluna, head of economic research at Daiwa Capital Markets.

A source close to the investigation said on Wednesday that the candidate featured on the newspaper cutting was Fillon.