Populist National Rally (RN) leader and French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has achieved a record level of popularity in a new poll, while French President Emmanuel Macron has seen a decline.

The popularity of Ms Le Pen has risen to 40 per cent among the French public, according to a poll released by the firm Ifop this week. The poll is the best result ever for the populist French presidential candidate who is one of the main contenders in the presidential race.

The result for Le Pen also places her far above her main populist rival, the conservative writer and television pundit Eric Zemmour, who scored 27 per cent in the poll and placed Le Pen on the same level as conservative Les Republicains candidate Valérie Pécresse, who saw a decline of 5 per cent, Paris Match reports.

Zemmour made headlines in October of last year after polling ahead of Le Pen in some surveys and launching his presidential campaign in December, calling for an end to the “third-worldisation” of France and speaking openly of the rapid demographic shifts and the theory of the “Great Replacement.”

While Zemmour has promised to reduce immigration levels to zero, Le Pen has put forward the idea of a referendum on immigration that could dramatically reform France’s immigration system as well as how the country confers citizenship.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who remains in first place among recent presidential polling and is likely to qualify for the second round-run off vote that sees the top two candidates go head to head, saw 45 per cent popularity, down four per cent and behind former Presidents Nicholas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande.

Several of Macroin’s ministers have also seen a decline in popularity, including Prime Minister Jean Castex, Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer and Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire.

The result of the poll is positive for Le Pen who now faces Valérie Pécresse as her main rival to enter the second round of the presidential race, with a recent poll by Ifop putting Le Pen at 18 per cent and Pécresse at 16 per cent, while Eric Zemmouyr remains in fourth place at 11.5 per cent.

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