Sky News — The centrist favourite to win the French presidency is losing his lead over his far-right rival with just a week to go until the vote.
Emmanuel Macron’s lead over Marine Le Pen has slipped six points since polls conducted just before the first round last Sunday.
However he is still as much as 20 points ahead.
According to pollster Harris Interactive, who correctly predicted the result of the first round with remarkable accuracy, Mr Macron now has a lead of 61% against Ms Le Pen’s 39%.
That compares to a poll carried out under the same conditions just before last Sunday’s vote which put Mr Macron at 67% and Ms Le Pen at 33%.
Importantly, the most recent Harris poll was conducted before Ms Le Pen announced an alliance with the defeated first round presidential candidate Nicolas Dupont-Aignan.
Mr Dupont-Aignan was sixth in the first round contest, securing 4.7% of the vote.
His party, Debout La France (Stand Up France), is an off-shoot of the conservative right. The alliance will be seen by some right-wing voters as attractive.
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