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WORLD NEWS Thursday 13 april 2017
France election: Far-left Melenchon enjoys late poll surge

or pull the country out of its unity weighing heavily on
economic stagnation. sentiment, the euro may
Promising to heavily tax be in store for further pun-
the rich and renegotiate ishment,” Lukman Otunuga
France’s role in the EU and of FXTM said Wednesday.
trade pacts, Melenchon is Melenchon, 65, is an un-
also giving financial mar- likely iconoclast. He spent
kets a new reason to worry. decades in mainstream
A possible French depar- politics, serving in a Socialist
ture from the EU — a “Frex- government and in parlia-
it” — would be devastating ment. He now leads a far-
to the bloc. left alliance that includes
Investors are growing more the Communist Party.
cautious ahead of the Yet Melenchon tapped
presidential election in the into the populist zeitgeist —
eurozone’s second-biggest and the social media revo-
economy. The difference lution — years ago.
between the 10-year bond An early Twitter user, he has
yields of France and Ger- mastered tweets targeting
many has risen to its wid- the world of finance. His
est in six weeks, as inves- YouTube channel - started
tors flock to the perceived for the 2012 presidential
French hard-left presidential candidate, Jean-Luc Melenchon, speaks during a campaign rally safety of German debt. campaign, where he fin-
in Marseille’s Old Port, southern France. The two-round presidential election is set for April 23 and “With the growing threat ished fourth — has gar-
May 7. of Euroskeptic parties de-
(AP Photo/Claude Paris) nered 21 million views.q
stabilizing the eurozone’s
ANGELA CHARLTON candidate Marine Le Pen
Associated Press are leading ahead of the
PARIS (AP) — With a bleed- April 23 first round presiden-
the-rich video game and tial vote, with the top two
suggestions of a “Frexit,” vote-getters advancing to
French far-left candidate the May 7 presidential run-
Jean-Luc Melenchon is rat- off. Yet Melenchon, once a
tling financial markets by distant fifth, has risen in re-
rising in polls just 11 days cent polls to roughly third,
before the country’s presi- about even with conserva-
dential vote. tive presidential candidate
Melenchon’s surge is the Francois Fillon.
latest surprise in a roller- Melenchon’s sharp-
coaster campaign that’s tongued wit and eloquent
being closely watched anti-capitalist rhetoric dur-
around Europe and has ing the two presidential
featured a strong dose of debates helped boost
anti-establishment popu- his standing among an
lism. electorate frustrated with
Most polling agencies still France’s traditional left
show that centrist Emman- and right parties, which
uel Macron and far-right have failed to create jobs