Macron seen leading France's presidential election

French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron's multiform project gave him a boost in a poll which predicted him to top the first round, a Harris Interactive survey released on Thursday showed.

With less than six weeks before the election kicks off, the poll predicted Macron, 39, to come out first ahead far-right contender Marine Le Pen with 26 percent of surveyed voting intention, before going to defeat her in the run-off by 65 percent against 35 percent.

For the April 23 first round, the centrist former economy minister was polled to win 6 percent more votes than the last poll conducted two weeks ago, while that of Le Pen was unchanged at 25 percent.

Macron unveiled his economic roadmap late February based on spending, tax cuts, and boosting investment to kickstart the major economic power in Europe in the next five years, what he promoted as "a new model of growth."

The Harris Interactive polled 20 percent of votes for conservative candidate Francois Fillon, believing the scandal-hit ex-prime minister would be eliminated in the first round.

On Jan. 25, Le Canard Enchaine, a French satirical weekly magazine, reported that the ex-premier had paid his wife and two of his five children about one million euros (1.08 million U.S. dollars) for jobs as parliamentary assistants that they didn't do.

Harris Interactive conducted the poll for France Televisions on March 6-8, questioning 4,932 people in online interviews.

Harris interactive is headquartered in Rochester in northern New York State. It is a market research firm which works in a wide range of industries in North America, Europe and Asia.

Source: Xinhua