Ten days before the first round of the presidential election, 80 people gathered this Thursday evening in the Coulounieix-Chamiers neighborhood house for a public meeting in support of Emmanuel Macron. The general delegate of the Republic in March Stanislas Guérini was to be present, but he finally had to cancel his visit.
Several supporters of Emmanuel Macron were present: the deputies of the Dordogne Jean-Pierre Cubertafon, Michel Delpon, Philippe Chassaing and Jacqueline Dubois, the mayor of Roque-Gageac Jérôme Peyrat, the referent of the LREM campaign in Dordogne Sébastien Cattaï, or again the mayor of Agen Jean Dionis du Séjour who made the trip especially for the occasion.
“The time for confrontation will come”
Since the start of the campaign, Emmanuel Macron has been in the lead, with 28% of voting intentions according to a latest poll. But for a few days, the gap between the candidate president and Marine le Pen has widened, the candidate of the National Rally now exceeding the 20% mark. This gap narrows even further in the second round. A poll published on Wednesday gives Emmanuel Macron at 52.5%, and Marine Le Pen at 47.5%. “Maybe some imagined it would be easy, for my part I never imagined it would be easy”, says Jean Dionis du Séjour, shrugging his shoulders. For the mayor of Agen, above all, these polls should not be taken into account too much for the moment. “The tempo of a campaign is that in the first round, we choose, in the second round, we eliminate. So we are not yet in the frontal debate with Marine Le Pen. The moment will come when we will tell the people you are still not going to entrust the keys to the French truck to the extreme right, but that is not the subject for the moment. The time for confrontation will come”he says.
“The only candidate who has the shoulders to govern”
For him for the moment, it is necessary to seduce the French, to make them want to vote Emmanuel Macron. “The most important thing is that Emmanuel Macron is between 28 and 30% in the first round.” An opinion shared by supporters of Emmanuel Macron who came to attend the public meeting. For André, Emmanuel Macron “is the only candidate who has the shoulders to govern”. Besides, he already knew it five years ago, he had voted for the candidate. For this retiree, the aid provided in terms of purchasing power such as the 18-cent discount on the price of fuel introduced on April 1 are good measures. He also supports raising the retirement age to 65. A few chairs further, Félix, 17 years old and student in 1st, has also supported Emmanuel Macron since his beginnings. “I like his project for Europe, he carried out his reforms to the end”he explains.
There are exactly ten days left to convince the Périgord voters. And hope to reach 30% in the first round.