Presidential 2022: confronted with Eric Zemmour, Marine Le Pen appears less extreme but more fragile than in 2017

According to a public Kantar study for “Le Monde” and FranceInfo, the RN candidate is perceived as more moderate than ever. But if she has managed to straighten her image during the five-year, she is in less good position in this campaign than in the previous one.

by and

How do the French perceive Marine Le Pen at three months of the presidential election? The 2022 edition of the National Gathering Barometer (RN) directed by Kantar Public with Le Monde and FranceInfo – from 1,016 respondents faced at their home – reveals that the candidate has softened his image, in an effect Very net contrast with Eric Zemmour. Beyond this appearance, however, it faces persistent difficulties in relation to the previous presidential ballot.

In recent months, the eyes of the French on Marine Le Pen has changed unpublished: only 40% see in it the representative of a “extreme right nationalist and xenophobe”, 11 points less than in 2018. In parallel, 46% perceive it as the representative of a “patriotic right attached to traditional values” (+ 8 points). On the other hand, a majority of the French interviewed (64%) consider Eric Zemmour as the representative of a nationalist and xenophobic extreme right, including within the RN, where more than a third of the electors see it as such.

“This is a spectacular evolution for Marine Le Pen and this change is rather shot by the left electorate (+ 5 points) than by that of Republicans,” observes Emmanuel River, International Director of Public Kantar Political Studies . A positive development for the NR candidate, so, but without voice contributions to the key.

Not only Marine Le Pen is perceived as less extreme, but it is the subject of less massive rejection than Eric Zemmour. Few French wish the candidate’s victory (21%), but less would like the polemicist (8%).

Improved personal image

The hon. Member for Pas-de-Calais did not completely trivially. Half of the French still judge that it represents “a danger for democracy” (50%), much more than Emmanuel Macron (31%) or the innouma Jean-Luc Mélenchon (29%). Again, it benefits from the comparison with Eric Zemmour: 62% of the French people consider the polemicist as a danger for democracy.

But, well before Eric Zemmour’s emergence in the political game, Marine Le Pen had managed to smooth the image of his party: the concern about the RN has attenuated in time, Showing 10 points less than five years and 25 points less than in the early 1990s. “This takes into account both the nature of the political project and the proximity of power: the more the RN progresses, The more it is perceived as dangerous, precise Emmanuel River. In periods of counter-performance between 2002 and 2011, the National Front was perceived as less dangerous because in difficulty. But today, and this is the novelty, the Rn is at a high level, and the French consider it less like a danger. “

You still have 57.05% of this article to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.

/Media reports.