Poll shows Fillon losing votes in French presidential race, Juppe in 2nd round if he stood

PARIS Under-fire candidate Francois Fillon has lost support in France’s presidential election campaign, but fellow conservative Alain Juppe would reach the second round should he replace him, an opinion poll said on Sunday.

The poll by Kantar Sofres-Onepoint was conducted between March 2 and March 4 as pressure from within Fillon’s own party mounted on him to stand down and for Juppe to take his place.

It showed Fillon on just 17 percent of the vote – down 3 percentage points from a poll conducted last month, a score that would eliminate him from the contest.

National Front leader and independent centrist Emmanuel Macron would go on to contest the second round on 26 and 25 percent respectively, according to the survey of 1,027 people.

Under a scenario where Juppe were to stand in Fillon’s place, however, the ex-prime minister would take Macron’s place in the run-off, with 24.5 percent to Le Pen’s 27 percent, the pollsters said, putting Macron on just 20 percent.

(Reporting by Andrew Callus; Editing by John Irish)