Emmanuel Macron promises a five-year term under the seal of ecology; Marine Le Pen assures that she will defend the “most vulnerable”: the two opponents of the French presidential election continued their offensive on Saturday towards the left-wing electorate, arbiter of the election on April 24.
Eight days before the election, the outgoing president and his far-right rival continued their campaign relentlessly, each posing as a unifier of the nation.
At the same time, several hundred people in Paris and in around thirty cities were demonstrating against the far right, at a time when Marine le Pen had never seemed so close to the Elysée, even if the latest polls deepen the gap, giving Emmanuel Macron the winner at 55.5%.
The authorities were expecting around 15,000 demonstrators throughout France, for these rallies at the call of several organizations and unions.
“Our concerns are that the far right will come to power […] , we do not want Marine Le Pen at the Élysée. We are here to say “use your ballot to prevent him from coming to power”, we do not say “vote Macron”, but it comes down to that”, insisted in the Paris demonstration François Sauterey co-president of the Movement against racism and for friendship between peoples (Mrap).
Macron’s ecological promises
At a rally in Marseille, France’s second-largest city, the presidential candidate addressed left-leaning voters, especially environmentalists, directly, promising that if re-elected his prime minister would be directly responsible for environmental planning.
“The policy that I will pursue in the next five years will be ecological or it will not be”, he launched during a rally in the gardens of the Pharo, under a bright sun.
In front of a few thousand people, he promised a “complete renewal” of his policy, saying he had “heard” the message of the first round where the leader of the radical left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, champion of ecological planning, almost created the surprise and reach the second round with 22% of the vote, behind Marine Le Pen with 23.1%.
Objective of this proposal: to go “twice as fast” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
While the theme of the fight against climate change was almost absent from the entire first-round campaign, Mr. Macron said he wanted to give a “new perspective” for the years to come, and defended his record: “we don’t ‘We haven’t done anything during these five years,’ he insisted, while accusing his opponent of being ‘climatosceptic’.
“The choice is clear: the far right is a climate-skeptical project that wants to destroy wind turbines,” he said.
” Housewife “
At the same time, the far-right candidate was immersed in a small rural town in the northwest, Saint Rémy-sur-Avre. In conquered territory in this town of 3,900 inhabitants where she collected 37.2% of the vote, Ms. Le Pen promised to lead France like a “mother” and to defend “the most vulnerable”.
“I will be your voice”, she promised residents who came to express their grievances: loads too heavy, lack of aid, lack of equipment for the disabled…
“If the people vote, the people win,” said Ms. Le Pen, still worried about abstention from her voters.
Referring to the demonstrations against the far right and the multiple platforms calling for Emmanuel Macron to vote, Ms. Le Pen castigated a “brutal agitation” and “rather disrespectful of democracy”.
According to her, the “system” symbolized in her eyes by Emmanuel Macron and his supporters “is worried because he sees that the people want to regain power”.
Saturday evening will be known the first results of a consultation launched by Jean-Luc Mélenchon with his 310,000 supporters for the second round. Abstention, blank vote or Emmanuel Macron vote? On the evening of the first round, the leader of the radical left called not to “give a single voice to Ms. Le Pen”.