A new poll showed French conservative Valerie Pecresse as the likely challenger to President Emmanuel Macron in the second round of presidential elections in April 2022.
The Ipsos/Sopra Steria poll showed Pecresse - who early this month won her Les Republicains party's primary to be its candidate - winning 17% of first-round voting intentions, behind Macron's 25.5%, but up 10 points from a poll in October.
The two candidates winning the most votes in the first round on April 10 will go through to the April 24 run-off vote
Far-right TV chat show personality Eric Zemmour, who had come second to Macron in several first-round voting intention polls this autumn, saw his share of first-round intentions slide to 14.5% from 16% in October.
That put him on par with far-right Rassemblement National party leader Marine Le Pen, who also slid to 14.5% from 16%.
Green party leader Yannick Jadot and far-left Jean-Luc Melenchon came well behind, each with 8.5% of voting intentions.
The poll of more than 10,000 people was conducted via the Internet from Dec. 7 to 13.
(Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Mark Potter)
