French voters are increasingly 'lost'!

(Baonghean) - Up to this point, many French voters are still undecided on which candidate to vote for in the presidential election in almost two months. It can be said that this year's election has had too many unexpected developments related to the financial scandals of the candidates, leaving many French people "disoriented."

What's noteworthy is that these surprises show no signs of stopping, with the latest "victim" being Emmanuel Macron, the liberal candidate of the "En Marche" movement.

"Happy days are short-lived."

After right-wing candidate Francois Fillon of the Republican Party (LR) became embroiled in the "Penelogate" scandal, accused of creating fictitious jobs for his wife and children and illegally earning nearly 1 million euros while serving as a member of parliament, Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front (FN) quickly rose to the top of opinion polls regarding support.

Various polls show that Marine Le Pen's approval rating has consistently remained stable at 26-28% of the vote. Notably, she has always received over 40% of the vote among the working class.

Francois Fillon may resign after being impeached (AFP).

But soon after Francois Fillon, Marine Le Pen also became embroiled in a financial scandal, accused of misappropriating 300,000 euros on the use of assistants, not for the work of the European Parliament but to serve her FN party.

This incident, in turn, became an opportunity for the "cleanest" candidate at the time, Emmanuel Macron, the liberal candidate of the "En Marche" movement.

Starting by narrowing the gap with leading candidate Marine Le Pen to 22.5% compared to 26.5%, Emmanuel Macron has consistently gained ground for over two weeks.

While the popularity of his two potential rivals, Fillon and Le Pen, has plummeted, Macron has emerged as the most promising candidate in the race for the French presidency.

A Harris Interactive poll conducted on March 9th showed that, in the first round, candidate Macron took the lead with 26% of the vote, surpassing Marine Le Pen with 25% of the vote.

According to the same poll, Macron will continue to defeat his opponent Le Pen in the second round of the election scheduled for May 7th, with a significant lead of 65% to 35%.

But with nearly two months still to go before the first round of the French presidential election – a long enough time for surprises to continue – Macron is once again facing a scandal as the Paris prosecutor's office opened a preliminary investigation on March 13th on charges of "bias and complicity."

Emmanuel Macron, the latest presidential candidate to face legal troubles. Photo: Getty

Macron is under investigation in his capacity as Minister of Economy regarding the Consumer Electronics Show held in January 2016 in Las Vegas – an event for which the French Trade and Investment Promotion Agency awarded the hosting rights to the American company Havas instead of conducting a bidding process as per usual practice.

The French Inspector General for Finance has issued a report suggesting that Macron may have shown "bias" in organizing this event. Several figures have now spoken out in Macron's defense, stating that this was merely an "incident" by the French trade and investment promotion agency and that Macron was "completely uninvolved."

However, with French voters already highly sensitive to the scandals surrounding their candidates and in a state of considerable uncertainty, no one is certain to what extent this incident will affect Macron's reputation.

The race of the "second-tier racers"

This year's French election is reminiscent of last year's US election, with its many surprises and voters facing a choice between "worse and less worse" options.

Despite their popularity ratings, the top five also include Socialist Party representative and former Education Minister Benoît Hamon, and leader of the far-left "France Unbowed" movement Jean Luc Mélenchon.

However, all attention at this point is still focused on three candidates: Francois Fillon, Marine Le Pen, and Emmanuel Macron.

However, the situation for all three candidates is now not very promising: Mr. Fillon has been officially indicted, Ms. Le Pen is trying to buy time by refusing to meet with the investigating police, and Mr. Macron has also begun to face legal troubles.

With no candidate presenting a truly outstanding and distinctive platform, and with all three candidates now having "blemishes" on their record, predicting the winner in the upcoming April and May elections is increasingly becoming a game of... guesswork.

Despite the scandal, Marine Le Pen enjoys relatively stable approval ratings.

With Fillon having previously stated he would withdraw if prosecuted, all the hard work and effort put into building the Republican Party's (LR) team over the past five years has essentially gone to waste.

It is almost impossible for this party to choose a replacement for Fillon, with only one day left until the deadline (March 17) for candidates to gather enough endorsements from local MPs and representatives to officially become candidates.

If Mr. Fillon does not follow through on his promise and continues to "fight to the end," his chances of winning are extremely slim, as it depends heavily on the judges' ruling.

Although Fillon may have fallen behind, there is no guarantee that Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron will maintain their current pace and reach the finish line smoothly.

According to the plan, the top five candidates in the polls for the Elysée Palace race will debate live on the French private television channel TF1 on March 20th.

This is an opportunity for candidates to overcome the scandals surrounding them and win more votes. But who will be able to do it? This is a question that analysts, as well as the French people themselves, have yet to answer.

Thuy Ngoc