Le Pen shrugs off defections in battle for French far-right

[geemong]

Le Pen shrugs off defections in battle for French far-right

Veteran French far-right politician Marine Le Pen shrugged off another defection from her party to rival Eric Zemmour on Sunday (Jan 22) amid an increasingly bitter battle ahead of presidential elections in April.

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One-time Le Pen ally and confidant Gilbert Collard formally announced Saturday that he was joining Zemmour's team and appeared at a rally alongside the anti-Islam writer and pundit in the south of France.

The European MP follows two other anti-immigration hardliners from Le Pen's National Rally party to join Zemmour in the last week: fellow MEP Jerome Riviere and senior party official Damien Rieu.

"I don't pay much attention to all these little manoeuvres between politicians because all of my energies are directed towards the issues of French people," Le Pen told France 3 television on Sunday.

A new poll published on Saturday showed President Emmanuel Macron winning the first round of the election on April 10 with 25 percent, followed by Le Pen and right-winger Valerie Pecresse from the Republicans party on 15.5 percent each.

The poll by the Ipsos-Sopra Steria group, with a large sample size of 12,500 people, showed Zemmour trailing in fourth place on 13 per cent.

The top two candidates in the first round go through to a run-off, where Macron was seen winning against Le Pen by 57-43 per cent and against Pecresse by a narrower 54-46 per cent, the poll showed.