Emmanuel Macron's Unexpected Shot at the French Presidency

The French presidential election has been full of surprises—from former Prime Minister Manuel Valls’s failed Socialist primary bid to the financial scandal plaguing the campaign of François Fillon, the center-right candidate. And no one has benefitted from these surprises more than Emmanuel Macron.

A poll released Monday by French pollster Opinionway showed the 39-year-old independent beating Marine Le Pen, the far-right National Front candidate, in the French election’s second round run-off in May with 65 percent of the vote. Le Pen is widely expected to finish either first or second in the first round of voting in April.

And while it’s still early, and polls can be wrong, Macron’s showing is a marked improvement from the third place finish some projected him having in December, a month after he . At the time, Macron was, or “On the Move!”