Politics

The NCAA Final Four will be played this weekend! In that spirit, we’ll be bringing you the numbers in rounds of four.

With only four weeks until the French Presidential election, Marine Le Pen leads the field in the latest Ipsos/Sopra Steria poll conducted on behalf of our media partners France Télévisions and Radio France. One in four likely voters say they support the National Front Party candidate, followed closely by Emmanuel Macron with 24% of likely voters, and François Fillon (18%.) Jean-Luc Mélenchon trails with 14% of likely voters, followed by Benoît Hamon (12%) and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (3.5%.) None of the other candidates received more than 1% voting support.

Healthcare once again beats out all other issues as the dominant concern for Americans (16%). Number two on the issues of concern list is the economy, coming in at 13%. For anyone who had “morality” in their bracket, we’re sorry to say that you’re probably not going to be pleased with the final four.

It’s unclear whether striking the word “affordable” from the Republican healthcare reform act was the cause for the lackluster public response – but the numbers, contrary to some of our polling peers, show little confidence in Speaker Ryan’s plan for the repeal and replace of Obamacare. Reuters will be releasing the exact numbers on this in the next 24 hours, so we encourage everyone to look out for that.

Pocketbook issues continue to dominate the public’s primary concerns this week by rating the economy as the number one issue of concern. For the first time in a number of weeks, healthcare has overtaken terrorism as a key issue of concern for the general public.

In the latest Core Political release of the Reuters/Ipsos poll President Trump’s approval remains essentially unchanged. His job disapproval (48%) remains slightly higher than his approval (46%).

A majority of Britons say Donald Trump should have been invited for an official state visit although should not give a speech in parliament.

The biggest takeaway from this week’s Ipsos Core Political Data is that the direction of the state is essentially unchanged from last week. President Trump’s approval rating is the same, 45% of all Americans approve and 50% disapprove of the job he is doing as Commander in Chief. As with previous Ipsos data on this point, there is a sharp party divide with 19% of Democrats approving of the job, and 79% disapproving. On the Republican side, 82% approve of Trump’s handling of the job, while 16% disapprove. Among Independents 39% support – and 53% oppose.

South Africans appear disheartened by the country's political leadership, according to the latest eNCA / Ipsos Approval Ratings poll. The poll canvassed 3,416 adult South Africans between 25 October and 28 November 2016*.