PARIS (Bloomberg) - Presidential hopeful Emmanuel Macron is France's most popular politician, while rival Francois Fillon ranks third, an Elabe poll published Thursday (Jan 12) showed.

About 41 per cent of those interviewed said they had a positive image if Macron, up 2 points in a month, compared with 35 per cent for Republican presidential candidate Fillon and 29 per cent for National Front leader Marine Le Pen, according to the poll.

Popularity doesn't translate directly into electoral support, though the poll gives a sense of broad perceptions of the three candidates who are currently leading the race to replace President Francois Hollande in May.

Elabe interviewed 1,002 voters on Jan 10 and 11. The poll's margin of error is 3 percentage points.

Alain Juppe, whom Fillon defeated in the primary contest for the Republicans' nomination, is the country's second-most popular politician with positive views of 40 per cent of those surveyed.