Washington Post: “In the latest plot twist in France’s highly contentious presidential election, Jean Luc Mélenchon — an outspoken 65-year-old leftist who often appears on the campaign trail via hologram and who has pitched his proposal to nationalize France’s biggest banks and renegotiate its relationship with the European Union via free Internet games and YouTube videos — is now soaring in the polls. With less than two weeks before the election, his meteoric and unexpected rise is already sending jitters through financial markets and shock waves through an increasingly anxious electorate.”

“The latest polls show him narrowly trailing Emmanuel Macron, long seen as the favorite, and Le Pen, expected to qualify for the final round of the two-round vote but to lose to Macron in the end. In the final days of a truly unprecedented campaign, Mélenchon’s unexpected surge is a reminder that radical change is in the air and that its extremist apostles — on the right or the left — may soon hold power.”

A new OpinionWay poll in France finds that first-round support for anti-euro candidate Marine Le Pen rose one percentage point to 27%, with Emmanuel Macron and Francois Fillon unchanged at 20% each.

“While no surveys so far have shown Le Pen even close to a victory in May’s run-off, she’s quickly narrowing the gap to her rivals. OpinionWay showed Macron would defeat Le Pen by 58 percent to 42 percent in the second round. His advantage has halved in less than two weeks.”

French President Francois Hollande said that he will not stand for a second term, the BBC reports.

A new Ipsos poll in France shows National Front leader Marine Le Pen has taken a commanding lead in the country’s presidential election with 29%, followed by Nicolas Sarkozy at 21%, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon at 14%.

“The results are likely to add to growing fears that the rise of global populism could see Ms Le Pen on course to clinch the French presidential win, in the wake of the UK’s Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s victory in the US election.”