(Paris) They go one after the other: the tone hardened on Friday between outgoing President Emmanuel Macron and the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, finalists for the French presidential election, who accuse each other of “brutality”.
Posted at 10:12 a.m.
Updated at 2:17 p.m.
Gathering Thursday evening in Avignon, in the south of France, Mme Le Pen called for the outgoing president to be “blocked”, reversing the roles since “blocking” in France is a formulation aimed at the far right since it reached the second round of the presidential elections.
“You don’t believe there is […] tens of millions of French people who consider that the government of Emmanuel Macron was a horribly authoritarian government, that he ruled alone, with brutality, that he repressed demonstrations? “, she added on Friday on BFMTV / RMC.
On France Info radio, the outgoing president, who has already accused his rival of “authoritarian drift”, replied that the far-right program was not “gentleness incarnate”.
Photo Daniel Cole, Associated Press
“Politics today is not government of the people, by the people, for the people. It is the government by a small number for a small number”, asserted Marine Le Pen, who prides herself on representing “the France of the forgotten”.
foot calls
Nine days before the second round, Mr. Macron retains the advantage in voting intentions (from 53 to 55%) but with a much smaller margin than in 2017 (66/34%).
And with several major unknowns, in particular the level of abstention and the postponement of the 21.95% of votes which went to Sunday on the candidate of the radical left Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
The two finalists continue to send signals to the electorate on the left, the arbiter of the election.
Asked about the possibility of appointing a prime minister from the left, Emmanuel Macron replied “that he never ruled out anything”.
The president, who has always presented himself as “neither right nor left” but has often been accused of “president of the rich”, also considered “shocking and excessive” the amount of remuneration of the leaders of the Stellantis automobile group, and spoke out in favor of “ceilings” at European Union level.
Mme Le Pen, who prides himself on representing “the France of the forgotten” and campaigned in the first round on the theme of purchasing power, considered that Emmanuel Macron governed “for a few”.
Debate around the veil
For Mr. Macron, the campaign between the two rounds is nothing like that of the first, which took place in the shadow of the war in Ukraine. He had made only one rally and few trips.
Since Monday, he has multiplied his immersions in the region with sometimes lively exchanges during long crowds. He will hold a large rally on Saturday in Marseille (south-east), the second largest city in France.
Change of tone and pace also for Marine Le Pen who was leading a low-noise campaign, favoring travel to small towns. From now on, it goes from media and media and tackles sovereign subjects, such as the reform of institutions.
“We are on reversed fronts: Emmanuel Macron will seek […] to restore an image of proximity that he does not have and Marine Le Pen will seek to install an image of credibility that she has less than Macron”, analysis with AFP Bernard Sananès, president of the polling institute Elaba.
On a surprise visit to a market in Pertuis (south-east) on Friday, Mme Le Pen, whose program provides for the banning of the veil in public spaces under penalty of a fine, has been arrested on several occasions by veiled women.
“The ban on the veil is essential”, insisted the candidate who likens it to an Islamist “uniform”.
Mr. Macron poses for his part as a defender of secularism and religious freedoms. If “Marine Le Pen prohibits the veil, by our Constitution, she will have to prohibit the yarmulke, […] the cross, […] other religious signs,” he said recently.
The Great Mosque of Paris (GMP, close to Algeria) and the Rally of Muslims of France (close to Morocco) called on Friday to vote for Emmanuel Macron. Several Jewish institutions had already done the same.
“Malicious forces are speaking out today and calling for the banishment of Muslims,” denounced the rector of the GMP, Chems-Eddine Hafiz.
On this Good Friday for Christians, Marine Le Pen went to the Notre-Dame de la Purification church in Lauris. As an echo of President Macron who visited the construction site of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Like around fifty sportsmen (ex-basketball player Tony Parker, ex-swimmer Laure Manaudou, etc.) at the start of the week, some 500 French artists and writers, including Charlotte Gainsbourg and Guillaume Canet, called to also vote for Mr. Macron, denouncing the program of “xenophobia and withdrawal” of Marine Le Pen.