PARIS — Former French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe is on track to win reelection as mayor of Le Havre, according to polling shared exclusively with POLITICO.
The survey from Cluster 17 showed Philippe, who is running for French president next year, netting 47 percent of the vote in the runoff on Sunday. His main challenger from the Communist Party, Jean-Paul Lecoq, scored 39 percent in the poll. The far-right National Rally’s Franck Keller came in third with 14 percent.
Should those numbers hold in the vote, it will be a major sigh of relief for Philippe. A poll released before the first round of the election last Sunday showed Philippe in danger of losing to Lecoq, which would have imperiled his presidential aspirations. Philippe is widely viewed as the centrist candidate with the best chance of beating the far right in the race for the Elysée.
Philippe had already managed to temper predictions of doom and gloom by turning in a strong performance in the first round, beating Lecoq by nearly 10 points.
Clea Caulcutt contributed to this report.