Ukraine may smooth Macron's path to power

THE Ukraine invasion has led to sharper fractures in European geopolitics, yet it could help smooth Emmanuel Macron's pathway to re-election this spring as he seeks to become the first French leader in 2 decades to win a second presidential term in office.

While Macron has long been the frontrunner in 2022, becoming the first candidate to receive the legally required 500 endorsements from elected officials, his prospects of winning have grown in recent days. Some 21 million viewers watched his address to the nation last week centred on Ukraine, with many welcoming his activist approach to the crisis as shown in a recent Ifop poll which found that the majority of the French population perceive him as "most capable" of handling the crisis.

This has given a new edge to Macron's poll numbers which had largely remained stable since April 2021. According to a BVA/RTL poll released on Friday (Mar 4), the 44-year-old is slated to secure 29 per cent of the vote in the first round of the election on April 10, a 5 percentage point increase since the start of Russia's invasion. Marine Le Pen, the long-time leader of the far-Right National Rally party, trailed more than 10 percentage points behind at 16 per cent, while the centre-right candidate Valérie Pécresse and hard-right TV pundit Éric Zemmour were tied at 13 per cent.