Le Pen reemerges as key challenger to Macron

With just weeks remaining before the first round of voting in the French presidential election, recent polls indicate far-right candidate Marine Le Pen has reemerged as the main challenger to incumbent President Emmanuel Macron.

Opinion polls for the April 10 vote put the president at 30 percent, with Le Pen in second place at 17 percent, lining up a potential rematch of their 2017 contest, reported the Financial Times on Monday.

France will vote over two rounds on whether to give Macron a second five-year term, with the runoff between two final candidates set for April 24.

Le Pen's rivals to qualify for the second round include her far-right rival Eric Zemmour, conservative Valerie Pecresse and far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon who have all received a poll score of around 12 to 13 percent each.

Main threat

Previous polls showed that conservative Pecresse would be centrist Macron's main threat. But Le Pen appears to have recovered from the damage to her campaign caused by her links to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Critics noted that Russian banks once bailed out her party The National Rally with a 9.4 million euro ($10.2 million) loan. She was also shown shaking hands with Putin in a picture used on previous campaign leaflets.

Chloe Morin, a political analyst at think tank Foundation Jean-Jaures, told the Financial Times that Le Pen has been attempting to tone down her party's more extreme rhetoric in recent weeks, and to set herself apart from Zemmour.

"Marine Le Pen has been normalized and has improved her image, thanks in large part to Eric Zemmour and her own choices," Morin said.

"Le Pen's image is always smiling and among the people, whereas Zemmour's image is cold. This will benefit her against Macron as well, since some people still see him as lofty and arrogant."

Speaking to industrialists at a campaign event last week, Le Pen said: "I am not an ideologue, I am pragmatic."

Agence France-Presse reported that Macron would win a runoff with Le Pen, with polls indicating a margin of 56 to 44 percent.

Macron's recent high-profile mediating role in the Ukraine crisis appears to have given his campaign a boost.

Jeremie Peltier, head of research at Foundation Jean-Jaures, told AFP that Macron was in a strong position.

"He was already the clear front-runner before the Ukraine crisis, and is even more so now," Peltier said.