The atmosphere remains tense within France's far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party, a month after its leader, Marine Le Pen, was sentenced to a five-year ban on being elected to public office, effective immediately. Recently, Le Pen's entourage was affronted by the announcement of a poll testing potential candidates for the 2027 presidential election. It was not the RN's promising results that caused a stir, but the poll's format. The survey by the French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP), commissioned by the hard-right think-tank Hexagone, initially only tested Le Pen's lieutenant Jordan Bardella as a candidate. Some in her entourage perceived an effort to delegitimize her possible candidacy, which the party has persisted in presenting as its natural option.

On Sunday, April 27, Hexagone announced on its social media accounts it would be publishing a "major exclusive survey of voting intentions for the 2027 presidential election," based on a sample of 10,000 respondents, and testing various second-round scenarios. The think tank accompanied the announcement with a visual showing 14 political figures from the far left to the far right, and notably Bardella, placed at the center. Le Pen, however, was absent from the line-up.

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