Wednesday night’s live TV debate may indeed have an impact on Sunday’s vote but not in the way Marine Le Pen had hoped.

An opinion poll carried out after the live debate and published on Friday by the Elabe polling institute for BFMTV and L’Exxpress magazine showed centrist Macron had a lead of 62 percent over Marine Le Pen’s 38 percent.

That’s a three point boost for independent Macron whose lead had slumped to 59 percent in the previous poll after a slow and clumsy start to his second round campaign.

Marine Le Pen was widely criticised for her performance during Wednesday’s debate with Macron in which she was deemed to be too belligerent and more obsessed with Macron than with her own vision for France.

Some critics and media described it as a ‘train wreck’.

The poll will be a boost for Macron who will go into the last day of campaigning of Friday confident it is he and not Le Pen who will be celebrating on Sunday night.

Analysts say only mass abstention can really threaten his victory and although two thirds of Jean-Luc Melenchon’s far left supporters have vowed to stay away from the polls, Macron should still have more than enough support to get past the post.

Both candidates plan high-profile television appearances on the final day as they seek to win over voters, with polls suggesting the 39-year-old Macron enjoys a 20-point lead over his opponent.

At a final rally Thursday in the northern village of Ennemain, Le Pen told supporters she would give them back the keys to the Elysee Palace.

“France cannot wait five more years to hold its head high,” she said.

At an earlier stop in the western town of Dol-de-Bretagne, protesters threw eggs at her entourage, although she was not hit.

During a final rally in the southwest town of Albi, Macron told cheering supporters: “We will keep our promise of change to the end”.

The former economy minister came under fire however from dozens of union activists demanding the abolition of France’s controversial 2016 labour reforms

Source:Thelocal.fr