French Centrists’ Feuding Increases Odds of Le Pen-Melenchon Runoff
Infighting has broken out among centrist candidates for France's presidential race, splitting the mainstream vote and making a runoff between far-right Marine Le Pen and hard-left Jean-Luc Melenchon more likely. Opinion polls before next April's presidential election show Le Pen is nearly certain to qualify for a second-round runoff in May and that Melenchon is consistently nudging ahead of mainstream candidates. Centre-right Edouard Philippe, President Emmanuel Macron's former prime minister, has so far been the center's torchbearer.
