FRANCE: French supporters of the European Union constitution have edged ahead of those who plan to vote No in the May 29th referendum for the first time since mid-March, an opinion poll released on Saturday said.
The TNS-Sofres/Unilog survey for Le Monde and radio stations LCI and RTL put support for the charter at 52 per cent versus 48 per cent against. The poll of 1,000 voters was carried out on April 27th and 28th.
It came a day after another poll, by agency Ifop, showed that a slim majority of 52 per cent of respondents opposed the charter ahead of the May 29th referendum. The Ifop poll of 795 registered voters was carried out on Thursday. A TNS-Sofres poll on April 20th put opposition to the treaty at 55 per cent versus 45 per cent for it.
TNS-Sofres said its latest poll showed the No camp losing ground mainly among left-wing voters. Socialist Party chief François Hollande said he was pleased at the results of this latest poll but said he remained cautious ahead of the referendum.
"I think that our campaign in recent weeks has been heard, our arguments have prevailed . . . The Yes [ camp] is advancing and there's now a majority of socialist voters in the polls," Mr Hollande told France Inter.