Centrist former minister Emmanuel Macron is for the first time more popular than his conservative rival for the French presidency, François Fillon, according to an Odoxa poll of approval ratings for L'Express magazine and France Inter, reports Reuters.
Macron was economy minister under socialist president François Hollande until he resigned this year to create his own political movement and stand as an independent candidate for next year's presidential election.
In the poll released on Tuesday, he became the most popular of 25 leading French politicians on a 35 percent approval rating, unchanged from a month ago.
That put him ahead of second-placed Alain Juppé, down 4 points at 33 percent, and ahead of Fillon, who lost 6 percentage points of popularity to stand at 31 percent.
In late November, Fillon beat Juppé to win the conservative nomination to contest next year's French presidential election.
Far-right Front National leader Marine Le Pen, in fourth place, saw her popularity rating increase by 1 percentage points to 27 percent.