Center-left Emmanuel Grégoire tipped to win race for Paris mayor, poll shows

PARIS — Emmanuel Grégoire looks primed to extend the Socialist Party’s quarter-century rule of Paris in Sunday’s runoff election to lead the French capital, according to a poll shared exclusively with POLITICO.

The survey from Cluster 17 shows Grégoire scoring 48 percent of the vote, seven points clear of conservative challenger Rachida Dati. Sophia Chikirou of the hard-left France Unbowed would come in third with 11 percent.

Grégoire finished 12 points ahead of Dati in the first round of the election last Sunday, but the former culture minister made the race far more competitive by teaming up with center-right candidate Pierre‑Yves Bournazel, who finished a disappointing fourth.

The decision of far-right MEP Sarah Knafo to drop out of the race gave Dati another boost.

Grégoire chose not to team up with Chikirou on principle due to her party’s abrasive, confrontational approach to the local election. France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon has stoked controversy recently with his unapologetic response to the killing of a far-right activist, and later with comments that were condemned as antisemitic.

Jean-Cristophe Catalon contributed to this report.