French President Nicolas Sarkozy has lost ground to his Socialist rival in the past two weeks of campaigning, an opinion poll showed on Sunday, predicting front-runner Francois Hollande would easily win the May 6 presidential election runoff.
The poll for LH2-Yahoo showed Sarkozy losing 3 percentage points to 23 percent while Hollande slipped 1.5 percentage points but remained well ahead on 30.5 percent of voting intentions for the April 22 first round.
If the second round runoff were to be held today, Hollande would get 58 percent of votes and Sarkozy 42 percent.
Centrist candidate Francois Bayrou gained 2 percentage points to 15 percent, putting him in third place alongside National Front candidate Marine Le Pen, who gained 1 percentage point.
The poll suggested Sarkozy had lost some support among the retired and elderly and supporters of his conservative UMP party, saying it was a sign of "Sarkozy's difficulty in generating a positive dynamic."
Several surveys have shown that the conservative leader, who is battling the worst poll ratings of any French leader seeking re-election, received a bounce immediately after launching his campaign officially in mid-February.