Will the far left put the far right into the French presidency?

The Guardian reports:

Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen went in opposite directions on Monday in an attempt to drum up support from new voters they need to win the final round of France’s presidential election in less than a fortnight.

Macron headed north, where he spent several hours talking to crowds at Denain, a former mining town once controlled by socialists but now a far-right stronghold, and promised he would listen to candidates “who failed to qualify” in Sunday’s first round of the election.

Le Pen headed south into northern Burgundy where the Paris commuter belt meets countryside and where she already enjoys support.

Both candidates need to convince the 49% of voters who did not support either of them on Sunday and the 25.1% who did not vote at all if they want to win the second round on 24 April.

Both will be looking to poach some of the 7.7 million-plus voters who supported the radical left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the only leftwing candidate to get anywhere near the second round with 21.95% of the vote on Sunday.

You might think people who voted for a far left candidate in the first round would never vote for a far right candidate in the second round, but it doesn’t work like that. Extremists tend to vote for extreme parties. At the real extremes, it is very difficult to distinguish between a fascist and a marxist – both are against democracy and freedom.

Macron got 28% and Le Pen got 23%. Who might go for Macron after voting for another candidate? The Republicans got 5% and the Greens 5% also. Add on the Socialists at 2% and 40% for Macron.

Le Pen starts at 23%. 7% voted for Zemmour. 3% for Lassalle and 2% for Debout la France. You have 35% for Le Pen.

That leaves the 22% who voted for Melenchon and 2% for the French Communists. Macron need to get at least 40% of their 24% to win.

I’d say he probably will manage it, but will be close.