Le Pen extends lead in French election poll after court ruling

Marine Le Pen extended her lead in a voter preference poll ahead of next April’s French presidential election after appeal judges cleared her to enter the race for a fourth time by shortening a previous ban on her standing.

The far-right National Rally candidate would get between 34% and 35.5% of the vote in the first round if it were to take place this Sunday, according to the poll of 1,503 adults by Elabe for BFM TV and La Tribune Dimanche newspaper. That’s a gain of 3 points from a survey in March.

Her closest rival would be Edouard Philippe, a former centrist prime minister under President Emmanuel Macron, who was favored by as many as 19% in one of six scenarios tested. Far-left France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Melenchon would trail him in third, except in one line-up where rival centrist former premier Gabriel Attal also is in the running.

Le Pen would beat all three in the runoff, according to the online poll conducted Thursday and Friday with a margin of error of between 1.4 and 3.1 percentage points. The runoff is on May 2.

“She’s in the lead among retirees and in major urban areas, and is neck and neck with Edouard Philippe among t...