- Roma stroll past Udinese as fans protest De Rossi sacking
- Horschel outduels McIlroy to win PGA Championship play-off
- Audiences summon 'Beetlejuice' to top of N. America box office for third week
- Stones salvages point for Man City against 10-man Arsenal
- Egypt fears 'all out' regional war: foreign minister to AFP
- Last-gasp Boniface gives Leverkusen victory, Stuttgart outclass Dortmund
- Scholz's party beats far-right AfD in east German state vote: projections
- Olympic champion Evenepoel retains world title in 'toughest time trial'
- Horschel's eagle beats McIlroy in PGA Championship play-off
- Mourners at commander's funeral express loyalty to Hezbollah
- Norris hails his 'mega' McLaren after dominant win at Singapore
- Monaco beat Le Havre to join PSG at the top of Ligue 1
- Scholz's party narrowly leads far-right AfD in east German state vote: exit polls
- New leftist president vows to 'rewrite Sri Lankan history'
- UN adopts pact to tackle volatile future for mankind
- Leclerc hails Ferrari fightback from torrid Singapore GP qualifying
- Belgian Evenepoel retains world title in 'toughest time trial'
- Sosa rescues point for Forest against Brighton
- Last-gasp Boniface gives Leverkusen victory over Wolfsburg in seven-goal thriller
- Swiss voters reject environment, pensions reforms: official results
- No fairytale ending for Ricciardo after 13 years in Formula One
- Israel and Hezbollah urged to step back from the brink
- What is the UN's 'Pact for the Future'?
- Norris dominates Singapore Grand Prix to cut Verstappen's title lead
- From bullets to ballots: Sri Lanka's comrade president-elect
- McLaren's Lando Norris wins Singapore GP to narrow F1 title race
- UN adopts pact promising to build 'brighter future' for humanity
- Military escalation not in Israel's 'best interest': White House
- Marxist leader declared Sri Lanka's president-elect
- Classes resume at Bangladesh university at heart of protests
- 'Barely anyone left': Sudan's El-Fasher devastated by fighting
- 'Warrior' Joshua vows to fight on despite Dubois mauling
- Martin extends MotoGP lead as Bastianini wins at Misano and Bagnaia crashes out
- New French government instantly under pressure on multiple fronts
- Australia's Brown adds world title to Olympic time trial gold
- Russian strike on Ukraine's Kharkiv wounds 21
- UK's Starmer rules out austerity as Labour conference opens
- Swiss voters reject environment, pensions reforms: projected results
- Israel says 'landed blows' on Hezbollah as Lebanon violence intensifies
- Roma CEO steps down amid anger over club icon De Rossi's sacking
- Incoming French government under pressure on multiple fronts
- Hezbollah rockets strike near Israel's Haifa as UN warns of 'catastrophe'
- Haddad Maia roars back to beat Kasatkina in Korea Open final
- All-rounder Ashwin powers India to 280-run Test win over Bangladesh
- Failed Springbok 'gamble' sets up rugby championship decider
- Lebanon strikes send Israelis to shelters as UN warns of 'catastrophe'
- Far-right AfD eyes new win in east German state vote
- Tony Popovic set to become new Socceroos coach - reports
- All-round Ashwin powers India to big Test win over Bangladesh
- NZ chase 275 to win first Sri Lanka Test after Patel bags six
Late surge gives leftist firebrand shot at French vote run-off
Jean-Luc Melenchon, a divisive but charismatic 70-year-old leftist, is in possible contention to make a French presidential election run-off against Emmanuel Macron as traditional socialist forces fall by the wayside.
With Macron way ahead in polls for the first round on April 10, far-right leader Marine Le Pen remains favourite to make the second round, but analysts give far-leftist Melenchon a chance if he can maintain his current momentum.
While other leftist candidates are stagnating or losing ground, Melenchon -- who has likened himself to a "sagacious tortoise" -- is steadily progressing towards the finishing line.
"This tortoise has already overtaken quite a few hares," he told supporters this week.
Melenchon could be helped by Le Pen facing a crowded field on the right with extreme-rightwinger Eric Zemmour likely to soak up some of her votes even if his star is now fading
Meanwhile, Socialist party candidate Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, has seen her poll ratings melt down and the campaign of Green candidate Yannick Jadot has yet to ignite.
"He (Melenchon) is the only figure that's left standing, a charismatic figure who's managing now, it seems, to mobilise larger parts of the left than one would have expected," said Philip Golub, a professor of political science and international relations at the American University of Paris.
"He has the ability to connect to the left-wing populations that find themselves orphaned as far as their traditional parties are concerned," he told AFP.
- 'Could get in' -
Cluster17, an opinion analysis institute, now has Melenchon at 14.5 percent of voting intentions, up from around 12 six months ago, while some recent polls even see him above the 15-percent mark.
Many polls, meanwhile, credit Le Pen with intentions in the high teens, but Cluster17's president Jean-Yves Dormagen told AFP that her voting score has in the past often fallen well short of predictions.
"If this is the case again this time around, she may get 14 or 15 percent instead of the 18 or 19 that people are expecting," he said.
"So we can't rule out that the qualification threshold is around 15 percent, in which case Melenchon could get in."
In the last election in 2017, Melenchon, who heads the "France Unbowed" party, won 19.6 percent of the first round vote, coming in fourth.
A repeat of a similar score now seems unlikely, partly because Melenchon has lost much working-class support to Le Pen, but also because he has alienated some voters with a number of conspiracy theories and his apparent support for Vladimir Putin in the run-up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
His anti-German positions, meanwhile, would not sit well with France's biggest partner in the European Union, and his anti-American rhetoric now seems at odds with increasing French cooperation with Washington within NATO.
"Only 16 percent of French people believe that Melenchon projects a positive image of France abroad," said Gilles Finchelstein at the Fondation Jean Jaures, a left-leaning think tank. "Only 20 percent believe that he's got the right stuff to be president," he said.
- 'Not a great fan' -
Even his own activists admit that Melenchon does not always make it easy for them.
"I'm not a great fan of the man, but I'm a great fan of his programme," Anne, 37, told AFP at a Melenchon election rally that, according to organisers, drew 100,000 people on Paris's Place de la Republique.
"He can be a bit polarising sometimes, but he's got integrity," said Hugo, 40, at the rally.
Melenchon has vowed to cut the statutory retirement age to 60 years from 62, while Macron has announced plans to raise it to 65.
He would also immediately boost the minimum wage to a monthly 1,400 euros ($1,540) from around 1,250 now, and cap energy and food prices.
"This election is a social referendum," Melenchon told the rally. "Never forget that a different world is possible."
But a Melenchon victory over Macron is almost impossible, pollsters say, with the president currently polling at over 27 percent for the first round and projected to beat any rival in the second round.
"It's unlikely that Melenchon would win in the second round, but he would offer a political and intellectual alternative that we haven't seen in France for a long time," said Golub at AUP. "It would definitely be interesting."
I.Meyer--BTB