The poll was partly taken after Tuesday's four-hour debate, the second during the campaign, but the first to include all 11 candidates and which saw Le Pen put on the defensive from all sides.
The debate may be pivotal. The top two finishers will go to a runoff on May 7. However, polls show his support is wobbly, with many of his potential voters still unconvinced he's the man to run this nuclear-armed country.
Francois Fillon denounced a manipulation from the Socialist government to eliminate him from the presidential race.
Watch: French citizens watch the presidential debate'Race to the bottom'?
Investors will not pull their money from France if it leaves the euro, according to Marine Le Pen, the far-right presidential candidate who pledges to call a referendum and restore the national franc currency if elected.
The comment appeared to be a swipe at Le Pen's efforts to detoxify the party her father Jean-Marie Le Pen founded and make it more palatable to mainstream voters.
It's unlikely, but not impossible.
In a recent interview with Xinhua, Sciences Po University professor Thomas Guenole saw Macron as "a possible victor by default", although the candidate has never held an elected post and "lacks charisma and is proposing a rather hazy right-left compromise".
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Several surveys found the National Front leader did not perform particularly well and after losing her cool several times was rated only the fourth most convincing candidate, with 11% of the share of viewers in an Elabe poll. And she has so successfully detoxified her once-pariah party that voters from left and right have joined her cause.
"The non-candidate president was perhaps not wrong", Noblecourt said.
Melenchon would yank France out of NATO, European treaties and global trade pacts.
Some leaders within the National Front wanted to back away from hostility to the euro when the party failed to win control of any regional and local councils in two sets of elections in 2015, despite strong scores. Possibly in the dust. Those two are Francois Fillon and Emmanuel Macron.
Fillon, a 63-year-old conservative former prime minister, and his wife are being investigated over the allegations, although they deny any wrongdoing. For supporters of Socialist Benoit Hamon, the next choice is Melenchon followed by Macron. However, even his promise of a universal income have failed to charm voters. It featured all 11 candidates for the race - nine men, two women seated in a semi-circle facing the journalists for nearly 4 hours.
Right-wing Nicolas Dupont-Aignan came in at 6 percent, far left anti-capitalist Philippe Poutou gained 5 percent, communist candidate Nathalie Arthaud polled at 3 percent and Francois Asselineau also gained 3 percent.
Jean Lassalle, speaking in the thick accent of the southwest, said he proposed a "future based on hope" in contrast to high suicide rates in the suburbs of main cities, as well as in rural communities - "that's the reality".
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